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THE TABLE-TALK 



OF JOHN SELDEN. 



WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE AND NOTES 



BY S. W. SINGER, F.S.A. 



THIRD EDITION. 




LONDON: 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 

SOHO SQUARE. 

1860. 






i( There is more weighty bullion sense in this book, than 
I ever found in the same number of pages of any uninspired 
writer." — Coleridge. 




ADVERTISEMENT. 

r HE flattering reception and rapid sale 
of the former edition of this little 
book given by the late Mr. Picker- 
ing in 1847, has encouraged the present pub- 
lisher to solicit me to superintend this re-im- 
pression ; and I have spared no pains to make 
it at least equally worthy of public favour. 
The text has been again carefully revised, and 
the notes, with some augmentation, are now 
placed beneath it, instead of at the end of the 
volume. It has been a source of infinite satis- 
faction to me to be called upon in the -evening 
of life to revise the text of the dramas of our 
great poet and that of this little golden manual, 
and to renew my intercourse with the minds of 
Shakespeare and Selden. 

s. w. s. 

Mickleham, 
November 19, 1855. 



^ 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



^ ||jf|j Preface . 11 

yj—B fe Abbeys, Pri~ 

ories . . 101 

Articles 103 

Baptism 103 

Bastard 104 

Bible, Scripture . . . 105 
Bishops before the Par- 
liament 109 

Bishops in the Parlia- 
ment Ill 

Bishops out of the Par- 
liament 117 

Books, Authors . . . 122 

Canon Law .... 124 

Ceremony 124 

Chancellor . , . . 125 

Changing Sides . . . 125 

Charity 127 

Christmas 127 

Christians 128 

Church 129 

Church of Rome ... 130 

Churches 131 

City 132 



Clergy 


133 


Commission, High . . 


134 


Commons, House of . 


135 


Confession .... 


136 


Competency . . . 


137 


Conjunction, Great . 


137 


Conscience . . . . 


137 


Consecrated Places . 


139 


Contracts .... 


. 140 


Council .... 


141 


Convocation . . . 


. 141 


Creed 


. 142 


Damnation . . . 


143 


Devils . . . , . 


. 143 


Denial, Self . . . 


. 146 


Duel 


. 146 


Epitaph .... 


148 


Equity 


. 148 


Evil Speaking . 


. 149 


Excommunication . 


. 151 


Faith and Works 


. 155 


Fasting Days . . 


. 155 


Fathers and Sons 


. 156 


Fines 


. 156 


Free-will .... 


. 157 


Friars 


. 157 



8 



CONTENTS. 



Friends 158 

Genealogy of Christ . 158 

Gentlemen . . . . 159 

Gold 160 

Hall 161 

Hell 161 

Holy Days .... 163 

Humility 163 

Idolatry 164 

Jews 164 

Invincible Ignorance . 164 

Images 165 

Imperial Constitutions . 166 

Imprisonment . . • 166 

Incendiaries . . . . 167 

Independency . . . 167 

Indifferent Things . . 168 

Interest, Public ... 168 

Invention, Human . . 169 

Judgments . . . . 169 

Judge 170 

Juggling 171 

Jurisdiction . . . . 171 

Jus Divinum .... 172 

King 172 

King of England . . 174 

King, The . . . . 176 

Knights Service . . . 178 

Land 178 

Language 179 

Law 180 

Law of Nature . . . 182 

Learning 183 

Lecturers 184 

Libels 185 

Liturgy 185 

Lords in the Parliament 186 
Lords before the Parlia- 
ment ...... 187 



Marriage 

Marriage of Cousin-Ger- 
mans . . . 
Measure of Things 
Men, Difference of 
Minister Divine 
Money . . • 
Moral Honesty 
Mortgage . 
Number 
Oaths . . 
Oracles 
Opinion 
Parity . . 
Parliament 
Parson . . 
Patience . 
Peace . . 
Penance . 
People . . 
Pleasure . 
Philosophy 
Poetry 
Pope . . 
Popery . . 
Power, State 
Prayer . . 
Preaching . 
Predestination 
Preferment 
Praemunire 
Prerogative 
Presbytery 
Priests of Rome 
Prophecies 
Proverbs . 
Question . 
Reason . . 
Retaliation 



Page 

188 



CONTENTS. 



Reverence 239 

.Residency, Non . . . 240 

Religion 240 

Sabbath 245 

Sacrament .... 246 

Salvation 246 

State 247 

Superstition .... 247 

Subsidies 248 

Simony 248 

Ship-Money .... 249 

Synod Assembly . . 249 

Thanksgiving . . . 252 

Tithes 252 

Trade 254 

Tradition 254 

Transubstantiation . . 255 



Page 

Traitor 255 

Trinity 256 

Truth 256 

Trial 257 

University .... 258 

Vows 259 

Usury 259 

Uses, Pious .... 260 

War 261 

Witches 264 

Wife 265 

Wisdom 266 

Wit 266 

Women 267 

Year 268 

Zealots 269 





BIOGKAPHICAL PEEFACE. 




^OTHINGr can be more interesting than 
this little book, containing a lively picture 
of the opinions and conversation of one of 
the most eminent scholars and most dis- 
tinguished patriots England has produced ; living at a 
period the most eventful of our history. There are few 
volumes of its size so pregnant with sense, combined 
with the most profound learning; it is impossible to 
open it without finding some important fact or discus- 
sion, something practically useful and applicable to the 
business of life. It may be said of it, as of that exqui- 
site little manual, Bacon's Essays, after the twentieth 
perusal one seldom fails to remark in it something over- 
looked before. 

Such were my feelings and expressions upwards of 
thirty years since, in giving to the world an edition of 
Selden's Table- Talk, which has long been numbered in 
the list of scarce books, and that opinion time has fully 
confirmed. It was with infinite satisfaction therefore I 
found that one whose opinion may be safely taken as 
the highest authority, had as fully appreciated its worth. 



12 BIOGRAPHICAL 

Coleridge thus emphatically expresses himself: " There 
is more weighty bullion sense in this book, than I ever 
found in the same number of pages of any uninspired 
writer." And in a note on the article Parliament, he 
writes : " Excellent ! ! to have been with Selden over 
his glass of wine, making every accident an outlet and 
a vehicle of wisdom."* 

Its merits had not escaped the notice of Johnson, 
though in politics opposed to much that it inculcates, 
for in reply to an observation of Boswell, in praise of 
the French Ana, he said : " A few of them are good, 
but we have one book of that kind better than any of 
them— Selden's Table-talk."t 

The collector and recorder of these Aurea Dicta, the 
Eeverend Richard Milward, was for many years Sel- 
den's Amanuensis ; he had graduated at Trinity Col- 
lege, Cambridge, and subsequently became Rector of 
Little Braxted, in Essex, upon the presentation of its 
then patron, the Earl of Pembroke. He was also in- 
stalled a Canon of Windsor, in 1666, and died in 1680. 

From the dedication to Selden's Executors, it will be 
obvious that Milward intended it for publication ; but it 
did not issue from the press until nine years after his 
death. Among the Harleian MSS. in the British Mu- 
seum (1315, pi. 42. 6.) is a written copy of this work, 



* Coleridge's Literary Remains, vol. ii. pp. 361-2. 

t BoswelPs Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, p. 321. It 
appears that it was once intended to translate it into French, and 
publish it under the title of Seldeniana. See Melanges de 
Litte'rature, par Vigneul Marville (i. e. Noel d'Argonne) tome i. 
p. 48. 



PREFACE. 13 

on which is the following note by Lord Oxford : " This 
book was given in 168 — by Charles Earl of Dorset to 
a Bookseller in Fleet Street, in order to have it printed, 
but the bookseller delaying to have it done, Mr. Thomas 
Rymer sold a copy he procured to Mr. Churchill,* who 
printed it." 

The authors of a literary journal gave at the timef 
an opinion against the authority of the book, on the 
ground that it contained many things unworthy of a 
man of Selden's erudition, and at variance with his 
principles and practice. Dr. Wilkins, the editor of his 
works, has adopted this opinion, but we may fairly sus- 
pect that his own political bias may have influenced this 
decision. The compilation has such a complete and un- 
affected air of genuineness, that we can have no hesita- 
tion in giving credit to the assertion of Milward, who 
says that " It was faithfully committed to writing, from 
time to time, during the long period of twenty years, 
in which he enjoyed the opportunity of daily hearing 
his (Selden's) discourse, and of recording the excellent 
things that fell from him." He appeals to the execu- 
tors and friends of Selden, for the fact that such was 
the manner of his patron's conversation, and says that 
they will quickly perceive them to be his by the familiar 
illustrations wherewith they are set off, and in which 
way they know he was so happy. This dedicatory' ap- 

* No edition that I have seen has the name of Churchill as 
publisher. That which has always been considered the first, 
is in small 4to. 60 pages, and professes to be " Printed for E. 
Smith, in the year MDCLXXXIX." 

t The Leipsic " Acts of the Learned." 



14 BIOGRAPHICAL 

peal to the most intimate friends of Selden, is surely a 
sufficient testimonial to the veracity of his assertion, and 
to the genuine authority of the work. 

It was possibly thought that the familiar and some- 
times homely manner in which many of the subjects 
discussed are illustrated, was not such as might have 
been expected from a profound scholar; but Selden, 
with all his learning, was a man of the world, familiar 
with the ordinary scenes of common life, and knew how 
to bring abstruse subjects home to the business and 
bosoms of men of ordinary capacity, in a manner at 
once perspicuous and agreeable. 

" He was a person (says his friend Lord Clarendon) 
whom no character can flatter, or transmit in any ex- 
pressions equal to his merit and virtue. He was of 
such stupendous learning in all kinds, and in all lan- 
guages, that a man would 'have thought he had been 
entirely conversant among books, and had never spent 
an hour but in reading and writing ; yet his humanity, 
courtesy, and affability were such, that he would have 
been thought to have been bred in the best courts, but 
that his good nature, charity, and delight in doing good, 
and in communicatiug all he knew, exceeded that breed- 
ing. His style in all his writings seems harsh and 
sometimes obscure,* which is not wholly to be imputed 
to the abstruse subjects of which he commonly treated, 
but to a little undervaluing of style, and too much pro- 
pensity to the language of antiquity ; but in his con- 



* Aubrey says; "in his younger years he affected obscurity 
of style, which, after, he quite left off, and wrote perspicuously." 



PREFACE. 15 

versation he was the most clear discourser, and had the 
best faculty of making hard things easy, and of pre- 
senting them to the understanding, of any man that 
hath been hioivn. Mr. Hyde was wont to say that he 
valued himself upon nothing more than upon having 
had Mr. Selden's acquaintance from the time he was 
very young. If he had some infirmities with other 
men, they were weighed down with wonderful and pro- 
digious excellencies in the other scale."* It has heen 
justly observed that it affords testimony in favour of 
both, that after their separation in the public path of 
politics, their friendship remained unaltered, and that 
Hyde on every occasion stood forth in defence of Sel- 
den's conscientious conduct. 

Selden was born at Salvington, a hamlet in the parish 
of West Tarring, on the coast of Sussex, not far from 
Worthing. The cottage in which he first saw the light 
was then known as Lacies, and is attached to a farm 
of about 80 acres. When visited in the year 1834, no 
relic of Selden remained but an inscription on the in- 
side of the lintel of the entrance doorway, consisting of 
the following Latin distich, said to have been composed 
by him when only 10 years old : 

Gratvs Honeste mih* no clavoait inito sedeb' 

FvR ABEAS : NO SV FACTA SOLVTA TIBI.f 



* Lord Clarendon's Life by himself, fol. ed. p. 16. 
f i. e. Honest friend, welcome to me I will not be closed, enter 
and be seated. 

Thief! begone, I am not open to thee. 

Johnson's Memoirs of Selden. 
This inscription reminds us of the story told by Pasquier in 



16 BIOGRAPHICAL 

Aubrey, who has left some gossiping materials for a 
life of Selden, says that his father was " a yeomanry 
man of about 407. per annum/' that he played well on 
the violin, in which he took delight ; and at Christmas 
time, to please himself and his neighbours, would play 
to them as they danced. In the parish register of West 
Tarring, is this entry: " 1584, John, the Sonne of John 
Selden, the Minstrell, was baptized the 20th day of 
December." So that there is some reason to conclude 
that his father occasionally exercised his musical talent 
professionally. Indeed Aubrey tells us that " My old 
Lady Cotton (wife to Sir Eobert Cotton) was one time 
at Sir Thomas Alford's in Sussex, at dinner in Christ- 
mas time, and Mr. J. Selden (then a young student) 
sate at the lower end of the table, who was looked upon 
then to be of parts extraordinary, and somebody asking 
who he was, 'twas replied, — his son that is playing on 
the violin in the hall." 

Wood says that it was his father's musical talent that 
gained him his wife, who was the daughter and heiress 
of Thomas Baker of Eushington, and descended from a 
knightly family of that name in Kent ; her fortune was 

his Recherches, upon the authority of Alciat. A priest named 
Martin, being made Abbot of Asello, found inscribed over the 
gate, 

PORTA PATENS ESTO NVLLI CLAVDARIS HONESTO. 

Being annoyed by the influx of visitors it occasioned, he re- 
moved the point from the end of the line and placed it after 
nvlli, and in consequence of the joke was deprived of his Abbey : 
upon which some one wrote over the gate, 

PRO SOLO PVNCTO CARVIT MARTINVS ASELLO. 

And as the word asello presented an equivocal sense, it gave 
rise to the proverb, " Faute d'un point Martin perdit son ane." 



PREFACE. 17 

probably small. Selden's sister seems to have married 
humbly; her husband appears to have exercised the 
profession of a musician at Chichester, and being an in- 
valid with a large family, had a pension of about 251. 
per annum, Selden being one of the contributors to his 
necessities. 

Selden received the first rudiments of Education at 
the free-school of Chichester, under Hugh Barker, after- 
wards a distinguished civilian ; and that he was an apt 
scholar appears from his early proficiency, for he was 
admitted a student of Hart Hall,* Oxford, when only 
fourteen years old. Wood tells us that he was indebted 
to Dr. Juxon for his exhibition ; and that he was a great 
favourite with Mr. Barker, who recommended him to 
his brother Anthony, a fellow of New College, who with 
John Young, another fellow of the same college, as- 
sisted him in his studies. 

He remained at Oxford about four years, and in 
1602 he repaired to London, and entered himself at 
Clifford's Inn: here he commenced his study of the law; 
and in May, 1604, he removed to the Inner Temple ; 
his chamber was in an upper story, in Paper Buildings, 
having the advantage of a small gallery to walk in, and 
looking toward the garden. 

His early proficiency appears to have recommended 

* Hart Hall, afterwards Hertford College; by the liberality 
of Dr. Newton, it was in 1740 converted into a College, receiving 
a charter of incorporation, but the funds proving insufficient for 
its maintenance, at the death of Dr. Hodgson the principal, in 
1805, it became extinct, and the site is now occupied by Mag- 
/dalene College. 






18 BIOGRAPHICAL 

him to the notice of Sir Kobert Cotton, for whom he is 
said to have copied records, and to whom he became 
closely attached ; to this early intercourse most proba- 
bly may be attributed his predilection for antiquarian 
pursuits. 

It was at this period of his life that, from being de^ 
voted to similar studies, he formed acquaintance, which 
afterwards ripened into friendship, with some of his 
eminent cotemporaries, among whom may be named 
Henry Kolle, afterwards Lord Chief Justice ; Sir Ed- 
ward Littleton, afterwards Lord Keeper ; Sir Edward 
Herbert, subsequently Attorney General ; and Sir Tho- 
mas Gardiner, who became Recorder of London. " It 
was the constant and almost daily course (says Wood) 
of those great traders in learning, to bring in their ac- 
quests as it were in a common stock, by natural com- 
munication, whereby each of them, in a great measure, 
became the participant and common possessor of each 
other's learning and knowledge." He also formed in- 
timate friendships with two of the most distinguished 
men of his time, Camden, and Ben Jonson, and pur- 
sued his studies in conjunction with one less known, Mr. 
Edward Heyward, of Reepham in Norfolk. The vir- 
tue and learning of this his " beloved friend and cham- 
ber-fellow" he speaks of in high terms. 

He became so sedulous a student, and his proficiency 
was so well known that he was soon in extensive prac- 
tice as a chamber council and conveyancer; but he does 
not seem to have appeared frequently at the bar. His 
devotion to his profession did not prevent him from 
pursuing his literary occupations with assiduity, and at 



PREFACE. 



19 



the early age of twenty-two he had completed his Dis- 
sertation on the Civil Government of Britain before the 
Norman Conquest, which, imperfect as it may now be 
thought, was still an astonishing performance for the 
age at which it was composed.* 

In 1610 we find him pursuing the same course of 
study, the fruits of which were given to the world under 
the titles of " Englands Epinomis" and " Jani An- 
glorum fades altera "f the first in English, the latter 
in Latin, illustrative of the state and progress of Eng- 



* It was not however published until 1615, when it was 
printed at Frankfort under the title of Analecta Anglo -Brittan- 
nicwn. The preface is dated 1607, and it is dedicated to Sir 
Robert Cotton. 

t The first edition of the Jani Anglorum, is a very small 12mo. 
apparently privately printed for the Author, and is very rarely 
met with. The Title : 

Jani Anglorum Facies altera Memoria nempe a primula Hen- 
rici II. adusque abitionem quod occurrit Prophanum Anglo - 
Britanniae Jus resipiens succureto SirjyrjiJiaTiKojg connexum filo. 
Inlustriss Comiti Sarisburiae dest. d. d. Opera Joannis selden 
Saluintonji e Societate Inter Tempi. Londinensis. 



Equibus 



Head of 
Janus. 



Londini. 
Impens. Auctor. Typis T. S. procur. 
CIO. ID. C X. 



I. Helme 



A copy was sold in the sale of T. Rawlinson's Library for 7s. 6d. 
Teste the celebrated collector. — J. West. 



20 BIOGRAPHICAL 

lisli law, from the earliest times to tlie end of the reign 
of Henry the Second. 

In the same year he published his Essay on " The 
Duel, or Single Combat," in which he confines his at- 
tention chiefly to the forms and ceremonies attending 
judicial combats since the Norman Conquest. 

In 1613 he furnished the English notes to the first 
eighteen songs of Drayton's Polyolbion : the prodigious 
number of the references in these notes manifest his 
learning and assiduity. His intimacy with Drayton 
and Browne, as well as Jonson, perhaps arose from 
those social meetings at the Mermaid* Tavern, in Fri- 

* Selden's intimacy with Jonson, Drayton, and Browne, might 
give us reason to suppose that in his earlier years poetry had 
some share of his attention, but he does not appear to have been 
a very successful votary of the Muses, and but few of his attempts 
in verse have been preserved : the reader may not be displeased 
to have a specimen, in his complimentary tributes to Donne and 
Browne. 

The following lines were addressed to Drayton, and prefixed 
to his poems in 1610 : 

Michael! 
I must admire thee, (but to praise were vain 
What ev'ry tasting-palate so approves) 
Thy Martial Pyrrhic, and thy Epic strain 
Digesting Wars with heart-uniting Loves. 
The two first Authors of what is compos'd 
In this round system all ; its ancient lore 
All Arts in Discords and Concents are clos'd ; 
When souls unwing'd Adrasta's laws restore 
To th' Earth, for reparation of their flights, 
Scholars the first, Musicians, Lovers make, 
The next rank destinate to Mars his Knights, 
(The following rabble meaner titles take,) 
I see thy temples crown'd with Phoebus' rites : 



PREFACE. 21 

day Street, where, in 1603, a club had been established 
by Sir Walter Ealeigh, at which those interesting "wit- 



Thy Bays to th' eye with Lilly mix'd and Rose, 
As to the care a Diapason close. 

John Selden. 
These verses are followed by panegyrical lines by Edward 
Heyward " To his friend the Author." 

There are verses in Greek, Latin, and English, by Selden, pre- 
fixed to Browne's Britannia's Pastorals (the first part in sm. 
folio was printed, I believe, in 1613, the second Edit. insm.4to. 
in 1625). 

It is remarkable that Selden's verses are also here followed by 
some by Edward Heyward, and indeed, almost all the commen- 
datory verses prefixed are by Members of the Inner and Middle 
Temple. Browne was himself of the Inner Temple^ 

In 
Bucolica G. Broun. Quod, per secessus Rustici otia, Licuit ad 
Amic. and Bon. Liter, amantiss. 

Anacreonticum 

KaXKog gov KvSepeia, &c. 16 lines. 

Ad Amoris Numina 

Quin vostrum Paphie, Anteros, Erosque, &c. 40 lines. 

By the Same. 
So much a Stranger my Severer Muse 
Is not to Love-strains, or a Sheepwards Reed, 
But that She knows some writes of Phoebus' dues, 
Of Pan, of Pallas, and her Sisters meed. 
Read and commend She durst these tun'd essaies 
Of Him that loves her (She hath ever found 
Her Studies as one circle) Next She prays 
His Readers be with Rose and Myrtle crown'd I 
No Willow touch them ! As his Bales* are free 
From wrong of Bolts, so may their Chaplets be ! 

J. Selden, Juris G. 



* Boies (faire Readers) being the materials of Poets garlands, 
(as Myrtle and Roses arefor enjoying Lovers, and the fruitless, 



22 BIOGRAPHICAL 

combats" between Shakespeare and Jonson took place, 
thus alluded to bj Beaumont in his letter to Jonson : 

What things have we seen 
Done at the Mermaid ! Heard words that have been 
So nimble, and so full of subtle flame, 
As if that every one from whom they came 
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest. 

His intense application appears to have very mate- 
rially injured his health, for in the dedication of his 
" Titles of Honor," published in 1614, to his friend 
Mr. Edward Heyward, he says, " Some years since it 
was finished, wanting only in some parts my last hand ; 
which was then prevented by my dangerous and tedious 
sicknesse ;" from this attack he attributes his recovery 
to the skill and care of Dr. Eobert Floyd (or Fludd), 
the celebrated Kosicrusian philosopher, who is said to 
have insured the efficacy of his nostrums by the mysti- 
cal incantations he muttered over his patients. He- 
turning to his studies with fresh zest and renewed 
vigour, he says, " Thus I employed the breathing times 
which from the so different studies of my profession, 
were allowed me. ISTor hatli the proverbial assertion 
that the Lady Common Law must lye alone, ever 
wrought with me." 

Selden prefixed to this book some Greek verses ad- 
dressed to " That singular Glory of our Nation and 
Light of Britaine, M. Camden Clarenceux," and the 
highly complimentary epistle by Ben Jonson which is 

Willow for them which your unconstancie, too oft, makes most 
unhappy) are supposed not subject to any hurt of Jupiter s Thun- 
derbolts, as other trees are. 



PREFA OK 23 

subjoined to this preface.* In the year 1617 he con- 
tributed the marginal notes to Purchas's Pilgrimage, 
and a short paper, " Of the Jews sometime living in 
England/' and the same year produced his celebrated 
work, " De Diis Syris ;" the Prolegomena treats of the 
Geography of Syria, of the Hebrew Language, and the 



* In the preface to the first edition we have the following 
interesting notice of his intimacy with Ben Jonson : " When I 
was to use [a passage out of Euripides his Orestes] not having 
at hand the Scholiast, out of whom I hoped some aid, I went, 
for this purpose, to see it in the well furnished librarie of my 
beloved friend that singular Poet M. Ben Jonson, whose special 
worth in literature, accurate judgement, and performance, known 
only to that Few which are truly able to know him, hath had 
from me, ever since I began to learn, an increasing admiration." 
The motto to this edition was from Lucilius ; Persium non euro 
legere : Lcelium Decimum volo. It is also furnished with a list of 
the Authors cited, and excellent Indexes, an advantage which 
the Second edition published in folio in 1631 does not possess. 

To this Second edition, which is so much enlarged as to con- 
stitute it almost a new work, another dedication is prefixed, but 
still to his " most beloved friend Edward Heyward," now styled 
" Of Cardeston in Norfolk, Esquire." The commendatory verses 
of Ben Jonson were also retained. In a copy in my possession, 
which appears to have belonged to Sir Thomas Cotton, the fol- 
lowing manuscript verses are on a blank leaf facing the title, and 
are again repeated, in the same handwriting, after the verses of 
Ben Jonson. They will serve to show in what very high esteem 
Selden was held by his cotemporaries, though they have no 
other merit : 

Selden the greate ! there hardly is a name 
More loudely sounded by the trumpe of Fame. 
Th' annals of learning's Commonwealth doe tell 
Of no Prince there, whose worth doth more excell. 

W. M. 
The price of this folio appears to have been xvi. Sh. bound, 



24 BIOGRAPHICAL 

origin and progress of Polytheism, and the two Syntag- 
mata embrace the history of the Syrian deities. 

He tells us that previously to the year 1618, pursuing 
an uncontrolled habit of study, full of ambition and 
hope, he determined to write, among other works, a 
History of Tithes, a Diatribe on the Birthday of Christ, 
and upon the Dominion of the Sea. The History of 
Tithes was printed in 1618, being duly licensed for the 
press; but even previous to its publication, prejudice 
seems to have been raised against it, and it no sooner 
appeared than it excited the displeasure of the court, 
and the bench of Bishops, with the honourable excep- 
tion of the excellent and pious Lancelot Andrewes, 
Bishop of Winchester. 

" As soon as it was printed and public," says Selden, 
" divers were ready to publish that it was written to 
prove that Tithes were not Jure divino ; some that it 
was written to prove, nay, that it had proved, that no 
tithes at all were due ; others that I had concluded that, 
questionless, laymen might, with good conscience, de- 
tain impropriated churches; others that it was expressly 
against the tithes of London." The work however was 
written with a far different intention. The fact is that 
it was a purely Historical Inquiry, and he says, " I 
doubted not but that it would have been acceptable to 
every ingenuous Christian, and especially to the clergy, 
to whose disputations and determinations I resolved to 
leave the point of the divine right of tithes, and keep 
myself to the historical part." In this expectation he 
was bitterly deceived, it brought forth a host of answers 
and animadversions, the most marked of which were 



PREFACE. 25 

those of Dr. Tillesley, Archdeacon of Kochester, and 
Dr. Montague, afterwards Bishop of Norwich. It had 
been so misrepresented to the King, that Selden was 
summoned to appear before him with his work ; he re- 
paired to Theobalds, where the King then was, accom- 
panied by his friends Ben Jonson and Edward Hey- 
ward, u being," as he says, " entirely a stranger to the 
court, and known personally there to a very few." The . 
King admitted him to a conference, and descanted 
sometimes learnedly, sometimes humorously, and at 
other times angrily upon various passages of his work; 
but dwelt particularly on the apostolic appointment of 
the anniversary of Christ's Nativity, saying that he sus- 
pected Selden agreed with those contentious Scots, who 
refused to observe any particular day; and upon Selden 
observing that this was so far from his opinion that he 
thought the 25th of December might by calculation be 
proved to be the proper day, he was commanded to 
write an essay on the subject, which injunction he after- 
wards complied with. He had another conference with 
the King at Whitehall, and thought from his reception 
that the matter would rest there, but he was soon after 
summoned before the Privy Council, and before the 
High Commission Court, and was obliged to sign a de- 
claration that he was in error in offering any argument 
against the right of maintenance Jure divino of the 
ministers of the gospel. His work was suppressed, 
and the King said to him : " If you or your friends 
write any thing against Dr. Montague's confutation I 
will throw you into prison." He tells us that the de- 
claration he signed was drawn up through the favour 



26 BIOGRAPHICAL 

of some lords of the High Commission, that it was true 
he was sorry for having published it, because it had 
given offence, but that there was not the less truth in 
it because he was sorry for publishing it.* 

He had spoken in this work of the unlimited liberty 
and confident daring of those who had interpreted the 
passage of Revelation which assigns 666 as the number 
of the beast, and praised the judgment and modesty of 
Calvin, who had declared that he could not understand 
that obscure book; and as it happened that the pedantic 
James had himself attempted to expoimd the mystic 
meaning, it is obvious that this tended to aggravate his 
anger. Selden was called upon to explain what he 
meant by this observation, and in doing so he made 
some compliments to the King winch have been consi- 

* It will be seen by referring to the article Tithes in the 
following volume, that forty years afterwards Selden had the 
satisfaction of knowing that the clergy sought and found their 
best defence in his persecuted volume. In 1653 the House 
of Commons in consequence of petitions presented to them insti- 
tuted an inquiry about the abolition of Tithes; the Kentish 
petition desiring that u that Jewish and Antichristian bondage 
and burden on the estates and consciences of the godly might 
cease." And Dr. Langbaine, in a letter to Selden, thus expresses 
himself : " Upon occasion of the business of Tithes now under 
consideration, some, whom it more nearly concerns have been 
pleased to enquire of me what might be said as to the civil rights 
to them, to whom I was not able to give any better direction 
than by sending them to your History. Happily it may seem 
strange to them, yet I am not out of hopes, but that work, (like 
Pelius' Hasta,) which was looked upon as a piece that struck 
deepest against the divine, will afford the strongest arguments 
for the civil right : and if that be made the issue, I do not despair 
of the cause." 



PREFACE. 27 

dered as derogatory of his better judgment, and un- 
worthy of him. 

In the struggle between James and the House of 
Commons, they had addressed to him a petition of griev- 
ances, in which their fear of the Papists and complaints 
of extravagance were the chief features ; when it was 
sent, together with a remonstrance, by twelve members 
of the House, the King refused to receive the petition, 
and returned a harsh answer to the remonstrance. The 
House in consequence resolved not to grant him any 
supplies until their complaints were attended to, and 
the King adjourned and finally dissolved the parlia- 
ment. Before the adjournment the House entered a 
protest on their Journals, previously consulting Selden, 
who, though not a member, was introduced and spoke 
with true patriotic feeling on the subject ; and certainly 
advised, if he did not draw up, the protestation, which 
the enraged and baffled King afterwards tore with his 
own hand from the Journals of the House. 

In the same tyrannic spirit the impotent monarch 
wreaked his vengeance upon those who were considered 
to have been the chief movers, and, upon warrants is- 
sued by the Privy Council, Sir Edward Coke, and Sir 
Kobert Philips were committed to the Tower ; and the 
Earl of Southampton, Sir Edward Sandys, Mr. Pym, 
Mr. Mallory, and Selden, to other places of confine- 
ment. The warrant for Selden's imprisonment directed 
his committal to the Tower, and prohibited his having 
communication with anybody but those who had the 
charge of his person ; but he was retained in the cus- 
tody of the Sheriff (Eobert Ducie), who lodged him in 



28 BIOGRAPHICAL 



d indul- 



his own house, and treated him liberally and 
gently; to the restraint from intercourse with his friends 
the prohibition of the free use of his books was added, 
but the Sheriff indulged him with the use of two works, 
one of them the MS. of Eadmer's History, which he 
afterwards published. 

His confinement was however of little more than a 
month's duration. Hackett has printed a letter of 
Lord Keeper Williams to Buckingham, in favour of the 
liberation of Lord Southampton and Selden, and this 
application prevailed, or the court, though willing, found 
that it had no power to punish ; and after an examina- 
tion before the Privy Council, where Selden seems to 
have been again protected by Bishop Andrewes, he was 
liberated on the 18th of July. 

In 1621 the House of Peers honoured him with their 
request that he would compose a work on their Privi- 
leges, to which he appears sedulously to have applied 
himself; the result of his researches was probably com- 
municated to the House long before, but the work it- 
self, " The Privileges of the Baronage of England" 
was not published until 1642. 

In 1623 he published his edition of Eadmer's His- 
torian Novorum, sive sui Seculi, libri sex* the notes 

* Sir Henry Spelman is busie about the impression of his 
Glossary, and Mr. Selden of his Eadmerus, which will be finished 
within three or four days ; together with his notes, and the Laws 
of the Conqueror ; the comparing whereof with the copy of Crow- 
land, was the cause of this long stay ; for they could not get the 
book hither, though they had many promises, but were fain to 
send one to Crowland to compare things. 

Sir H. Bourgchier to Usher, April 16, 1622. 



PREFACE. 29 

to which contain much curious legal and historical 
matter. 

James had in vain endeavoured to replenish his ex- 
chequer by having recourse to what were then strangely 
miscalled Benevolences, hut this species of extortion was 
not found effective, and he was, at the commencement 
of the year 1 624, constrained again to summon a par- 
liament, in which Selden sat as one of the representatives 
for Lancaster. Dr. Aikin thinks it most probable that 
" he owed his election for this borough to his reputation 
as an able supporter of popular rights, when members 
were chosen rather for their public principles than for 
private connections." 

Selden, though he does not appear to have taken 
much part in the debates of this session, was an active 
and valuable member of the celebrated Election Com- 
mittee, of which Sergeant Glanville published the Re- 
port, and among its other members were Sir Edward 
Coke, Noy, Pym, and Einch. The reader need not be 
reminded that to this committee the nation owes one of 
the strongest bulwarks of its liberties in the establish- 
ment of the independence of the House of Commons, 
in the right of jurisdiction over the election of its mem- 
bers : it also established that the right of election is 
in those who possess property within the precincts of 
Boroughs, and not founded upon the royal grant. 

Selden's time was now so fully occupied, that he re- 
fused to take upon him the duties of Reader of Lyon's 
Inn, to which he had been nominated by the benchers 
of the Inner Temple, and was in consequence fined in 
the sum of twenty pounds, and disabled from being 



30 BIOGRAPHICAL 

called to the bench or to he Keader of the Inner Temple, 
hut the latter part of the order was rescinded in 1632 
when he became a bencher of that Society.* 



* The following letter to Archbishop Usher will show how 
ardently he pursued his literary researches : 

To the Most Reverend James Usher, 
Archbishop of Armagh. 
My Lord, 

It was most glad news to me to hear of your so forward 
recovery, and I shall pray for the addition of strength to it, so 
that you may the easier go on still in the advancement of that 
commonwealth of learning wherein you so guide us. I humbly 
thank your Lordship for your instructions touching the Samaritan 
Bible, and the books. I have returned the Saxon Annals agaiD, 
as you desired, with this suit, that if you have more of them 
(for these are very slight ones) and the old Book of Ely, Historia 
Joruallensis, the Saxon Evangelist, the Book of Worcester, the 
Book of Mailross, or any of them, you will be pleased to send 
me them all, or as many as you have of them by you, and what 
else you have of the History of Scotland and Ireland, and they 
shall be returned at your pleasure. If you have a Saxon Bede, 
I beseech you let that be one also. If I have anything here of 
the rest, or ought else that your Lordship requires for any present 
use, I shall most readily send them to you, and shall ever be 
Your Lordship's most affectionate Servant, 

J. Selden. 
Sept. 14, 1625, 
Wrest. 

There is a hope (as Sir Robert Cotton tells me) that a very ancient 
Greek MS. copy of the Council of Nice, the first of them of that 
name, is to be had somewhere in Huntingdonshire ; I thought 
it was a piece of news that would be acceptable to your Lordship : 
he is in chace for it. 

The Archbishop had written on this letter ; 
Sept. 19. Sent him upon this; Annales Latini Saxonici, the Book 
of Mailros, Forduni Scotichronic. Fragment. Scotic. Annal. ad 



PREFACE. 31 

In the first parliament that was called at the com- 
mencement of the reign of Charles the First, Selden sat 
as one of the representatives of Great Bedwin, and in 
the second parliament which the King was constrained 
by his necessities to call, Selden took an active part in 
the proceedings for the impeachment of the favourite 
Buckingham, which the King defeated by dissolving the 
Parliament. 

In 1627 we find him pleading for the discharge from 
prison of Sir Edward Hampden, one of those patriotic 
men who had resisted the illegal mode to which the 
King had resorted for raising supplies. His argument 
was able and forcible, and though the judges then de- 
cided against it, later decisions have shown that it was 
equally correct. 

In the Parliament which assembled in March 1628 
he appears to have been again returned for Lancaster, 
and various committees were appointed to enquire into 
the public grievances ; of one of these, whose business 
was to enquire into the proceedings adopted respecting 
the writs of Habeas Corpus moved for in the case of 
those who had resisted the unconstitutional measure of 
forced loans under the name of Benevolences, Selden 
made the report. He also took a distinguished part in 
the debates on the subject, and established incontro- 
vertibly the illegality of committals without the cause of 
imprisonment being expressed ; the raising money by 



finemlvonis Carnot. Fragment. Annalium Abb. B. Mariae Virginia 
Dublin. Annales Hibernias Thomse Case. The Book of Hoath. 
Pembrig's Annals MS. 



32 BIOGRAPHICAL 

impositions without the consent of the Parliament ; and 
established indisputably the right of Habeas Corpus in 
every case of imprisonment.* 

Four resolutions of the House were passed embodying 
these opinions ; a conference with the Lords was held, 
which terminated in the production of the memorable 
Petition of Eight, in framing which Selden took an 
active part. 

His speech upon this occasion is a masterly and un- 
answerable effusion. He had consulted and copied with 
his own hand all the records which bore upon the ques- 
tion, with unexampled diligence, and with that confi- 
dence which can only be inspired by a consciousness of 
being in the right. He defied the Attorney General to 
controvert any one of his positions. He laid before the 
Lords the copies of the records he had made, and they 
ordered them to be compared with the originals ; in 
the course of this comparison some of them were found 
deficient or destroyed, and there was an imbecile at- 
tempt of the court party through the Earl of Suffolk to 
implicate Selden ; but that Lord afterwards denied that 
he had used the criminatory expressions which several 
members had heard him utter; the committee, not- 
withstanding this denial, requested the Lords to visit 



* The speech may be found in the Parliamentary History, 
vol. vii. p. 415. See also Rushworth's Collections, vol. i. p. 530, 
and Selden's Works, vol. iii. p. 1958. It has also been given 
by Mr. Johnson in his " Memoirs of Selden, and notices of the 
political contests during his time," Lond. 1835, a work to which, 
together with Dr. Aikin's Life of Selden, I have frequently been 
indebted for the materials of this sketch. 



PREFACE. 33 

the Earl with such punishment as he deserved for hav- 
ing brought a most unjust and scandalous charge against 
Selden. 

Two remonstrances were also prepared and presented, 
one of them against the Duke of Buckingham, as the 
principal cause of the evils complained of, with a re- 
quest that he might he removed from authority, from 
attendance upon the King, and that judgment should 
be made against him upon his impeachment in the last 
parliament. The other declared that the impost of ton- 
nage and poundage was no prerogative of the Crown, 
but was always granted to the King by Parliament. In 
the discussion and preparation of these, Selden took a 
prominent part. The King received them with marked 
impatience, and after the bill of Subsidies was passed 
he dissolved the Parliament. Selden had been some 
time previously appointed solicitor and steward to the 
Earl of Kent, and he now retired to that nobleman's 
seat, Wrest, in Bedfordshire, where he quietly pursued 
his literary occupations, which appear to have been at 
all times to him more congenial than the strife of poli- 
tics, in which he mixed rather out of a sense of his duty 
to his country, than from any predilection for a public 
life. The fruits of his retirement were two treatises 
" Of the Original of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of Tes-, 
taments," and " Of the Disposition or Administration 
of Intestates Goods," which may have been suggested 
to him by discussions in Parliament on the King's right 
to the property of bastards who die intestate. 

Upon the arrival of the Arundelian Marbles in this 
country, Selden's friend, Sir Kobert Cotton, requested 



34 BIOGRAPHICAL 

him to examine them, and he entered upon the task 
with all the enthusiasm of a consummate antiquary; 
being in the course of his investigations assisted by two 
eminent scholars, Patrick Young, and Richard James.* 
He now gave to the world the fruit of his labours under 
the title of " Marmora Arundeliana, sive Saxa Grseca 
Incisa." The work was dedicated to his companion in 
his enquiries, Patrick Young, and the preface makes 

* [Richard James.] Of this very learned and ingenious man, 
all that is known will be found appended to the publication of 
his " Iter Lancastrense," a poem with notes, &c, by the Rev. T. 
Corser, printed for the Chetham Society in 1845. He was a 
Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and if, as I feel con- 
vinced, he was the writer of the noble verses, " On Worthy Master 
Shakespeare and his Poems," signed J. M. S. which were first 
printed in the second folio edition of 1632, he well deserves to 
be enshrined in our memories. He lived in habits of intimacy 
with Sir Robert Cotton, Selden and Ben Jonson, and the fol- 
lowing verses prefixed to a sermon on Psalm xxxvii. 25, may 
serve as a specimen of his poetical talent, and of his affectionate 
regard for Selden : 

The Author's Preface to his Book. 

Go little book and kindly say 

Peace and content of night and day 

Unto my noble Selden. — Greet 

His gentle hands, his knees, his feet, 

In such fair manner, as not he 

Deem any feignedness in me. 

Say that thy master oft doth bless 

For his kind love God's holiness. 

And lest thou hindrance be to aught 

That busies his heroic thought ; 

Say not much more, nor wish reply ; 

But like the silly larke in sky, 

When ended is his cheerful lay, 

Warble Adieu ! and fall away. 



PREFACE. 35 

grateful mention of the advantage he had enjoyed in 
compiling the work, in the quiet retirement of Wrest,* 
by the favour of the Earl and Countess of Kent. Though, 
as may well be supposed, not free from faults, rather 
attributable to the defective state of Epigraphic Science 
at that time, than to any want of skill in the enquirer, 
this work is another honourable testimonial of the com- 
prehensive learning and active industry of this extraor- 
dinary man. 

The Parliament re-assembled on the 20th of January, 
1629, and the conduct of the Court since the dissolu- 
tion had been such as to add to the dissatisfaction of 
the Commons. Laud, who had been accounted a schis- 
matic and inclined to arbitrary measures, was made 
Bishop of London, and became the organ of the Court. 
Montague was made Bishop of Chichester, and Went- 

* Otia quibus haec fere prsestitimus imprimis nobis fecit summa 
Faventia et Benignitas Amplissimi Herois Henrici Comitis Cantii 
et vere Nobilissiruae Heroinae Elisabethce conjugis ejus. Tranquility 
enim secessus, quo Wrestce, quae eorum villa est in agro Bedford - 
iensi, turn restate superiori turn festo Christi natalitio fruebar 
(liberalissimo scilicet, pro insigni eorum erga me immerentem et 
perpetuse bonitate, ibi hospitio exceptus) opportimissime indulsit, 
ut urbanis interturbationibus liber, opus incaaptum commodissime 
absolverem." 

Lady Kent, who was one of the three daughters and coheiresses 
of Gilbert Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, seems to have been an 
especial favourer of learning and literature, for we are told that 
Butler, the author of Hudibras, was among those to whom while 
living she extended her favours ; and it was at her house, his 
biographer tells us, " he had not only the opportunity to consult 
all manner of books, but to converse also with that great living 
library of learning the great Mr. Selden." May we not conjecture 
that Butler owed this favour to Selden himself? 



36 BIOGRAPHICAL 

worth had been seduced to abandon the popular cause 
and raised to the Peerage. Added to these acts of 
irritation, the tonnage and poundage had been levied 
without the consent of the Parliament, and the goods 
of Mr. Polls, one of the members, had been seized for 
resisting the payment of this illegal imposition. 

Selden took a very active part in the enquiries which 
were instituted; he had hitherto expressed himself leni- 
ently about the court measures, but his patriotic spirit 
was now excited, and he indignantly exclaimed, when 
a plea of mistake in the case of Mr. Polls was urged : 
" This is not to be reckoned an error, but is question- 
less done purposely to affront us, and of this our own 
lenity is the cause." And when it was suggested that 
the advisers of the King were most in fault, he said : 
" If there be any near the King that misinterpret our 
actions, let the curse light on them, and not on us. I 
believe it is high time to right ourselves, and until we 
vindicate ourselves in this it will be in vain for us to sit 
here." 

The violation of the petition of right had shown that 
the King was not to be trusted, that he had now no 
regard to the observance of the laws, and the Commons 
continued to urge strongly their complaints of religious 
and political grievances ; during this session the court 
party were frequently the aggressors ; and at length an 
attempt was made to control the freedom of the House 
of Commons, by commanding the Speaker to adjourn 
it. Sir John Finch, the Speaker, was a mere tool of 
the court party, and his conduct on this occasion was at 
once erroneous and pusillanimous; the tumult in the 



PREFACE. 37 

House was extreme, the Speaker was forcibly detained 
in the chair until three protestations were read, declar- 
ing that whoever caused an innovation of religion, ad- 
vised the imposition of tonnage and poundage without 
the assent of Parliament, or whoever voluntarily paid 
it, if levied without such sanction, would be a capital 
enemy of his country, and a betrayer of its liberty. The 
House then adjourned. The King hearing of these 
proceedings, sent a messenger to command the Ser- 
geant to bring away the mace ; the House of course 
would not allow it. He then sent a summons to them 
by the Usher of the Black Bod, but he was denied ad- 
mittance. At last he sent a guard to force the door, 
but the House had risen before it arrived. 

Eight days after, March 10th, 1629, he dissolved the 
Parliament, addressing only the Lords, and in alluding 
to the Commons, he said, among them were " some 
vipers and evil affected persons, who must look for their 
reward." 

Nine of the members of the House, who had been 
most active on this occasion, were summoned to appear 
before the Privy Council ; Selden was among the num- 
ber ; the seven who appeared were committed to the 
Tower. The studies of Sir John Eliot, of Denzil Hol- 
lis, and of Selden, were sealed up ; and the other two 
members were soon after apprehended and committed 
to the King's Bench Prison. Nothing can exceed the 
folly and illegality of the whole of these proceedings, 
but the baffled despotism pursued its course with the 
utmost severity ; Selden and the other prisoners were 
not only restricted from intercourse with their friends, 



38 BIOGRAPHICAL 

but even denied the use of books and writing materials, 
for nearly three months. At length Selden obtained 
permission to use such books as he could obtain from 
his friends or the booksellers, and he procured the Bible, 
the two Talmuds, some later Talmudists and Lucian. 
He says, " also I extorted by entreaty from the Go- 
vernor (Sir Allan Apsley) the use of pens, ink and 
paper ; but of paper only nineteen sheets which were at 
hand were allowed, each of which were to be signed 
with the initials of the Governor, that it might be as- 
certained easily how much and what I wrote ; nor did 
I dare to use any other. On these, during my prison 
leisure, I copied many extracts from the above-named 
books, which extracts I have now in my possession, thus 
signed and bound together." 

It is evident that the court party found that they 
were in the wrong, and not likely to obtain their object 
by such measures, and agents were employed to endea- 
vour to prevail upon the prisoners to sue for acquittal ; 
without effect.* The judges had informed the King 
that as the offences charged against them were not ca- 
pital, they ought to be admitted to bail on giving se- 
curity for their good behaviour, and they gave their 
judgment accordingly on the first day of Michaelmas 
term. Selden, for himself and for his fellow prisoners, 
replied that they demanded to be bailed in point of 
right, and that they could not assent to the finding of 
sureties for good behaviour without compromising the 

* One of the agents sent to the prisoners in the Tower upon 
this occasion was Dr. Mosely. See § 4 in the article Clergy in 
the Table-talk. 



PREFACE. 39 

privileges of Parliament. He subsequently observed 
that the judges were themselves conscious that the pri- 
soners had done nothing that required them to enter 
into these recognizances, that it would have been con- 
duct unworthy of themselves to have complied, and that 
they were determined that the just liberty of the Eng- 
lish people should not be infringed by their acquies- 
. cenee. 

They were consequently remanded to prison, and 
Selden, Hollis, Valentine, and Eliot were proceeded 
against by information in the Court of King's Bench ; 
they excepted to the jurisdiction of the Court, as the 
offences were alleged to have been committed in Par- 
liament. This plea was overruled, and judgment was 
finally given, " That they should be imprisoned, and 
not delivered until they had found security for their 
good behaviour, and made a submission and acknow- 
ledgment of their offences." 

The conduct of Selden and his fellow sufferer, Sir 
John Eliot,* on this occasion was that of heroic martyrs 

* Sir John Eliot, not less distinguished for resplendent 
talents than patriotic ardour, had been previously imprisoned in 
the Tower for the part he took in the impeachment of the Duke 
of Buckingham in 1628. The condition of his liberation was 
now to be a fine of 2000/., and though "warned that the con- 
finement was killing him, he suffered and died with magnanimity. 
He thought, and wrote, and wept with anxiety for the welfare 
of his orphan boys, but he resolved to leave them his example, 
as well as his precepts to excite them to live worthily." The 
noble house of St. Germains may well be proud of such an illus- 
trious ancestor, and Gibbon (who was related to it) in his own 
figurative language, might have exhorted the Eliots to consider 
the conduct of Sir John as " the brightest jewel of their coronet." 



40 BIOGRAPHICAL 

to the sacred cause of liberty; a host of friends, among 
whom were Henry, afterwards Earl of Bath, Robert, 
Earl of Essex, Sir Kobert Cotton and his son Thomas, 
were ready to be Selden's sureties, and urged him to 
comply, but these entreaties, and the threats of inter- 
minable imprisonment, with which he was menaced even 
by the Chief Justice, were unavailing ; and, though four 
of the prisoners had compromised with the oppressors, 
he adhered firmly to his purpose. 

While he was yet in prison, a further persecution 
was contrived in the shape of an information in the 
Star Chamber, against him and his friend Sir Robert 
Cotton, and Gilbert Barrell, for intending to raise sedi- 
tious rumours about the King and his Government, by 
framing, contriving and writing " a false, seditious and 
pestilent discourse." This discourse was a jeu d'esprit, 
written by Sir Robert Dudley (the well known author 
of the Arcano del Mare). The manuscript of which 
being in the library of Sir Robert Cotton, and copies 
being traced to the possession of Selden and Barrell, 
they, as well as the Earls of Bedford, Somerset, and 
Clare, were implicated, until it was clearly proved in 
court to have been written by Dudley. The title was, 
" A proposition for his Majesty's Service, to bridle the 
impertinency of Parliament," and it was evidently in- 
tended as a satire upon the spirit of the Stuart govern- 
ment by recommending the most absurd system of de- 
spotic misrule.* 

* There is a copy among the Harleian MSS. to which are ap- 
pended some particulars of the prosecution, and a further account 
may be found in Sir Simon D'Ewes's Journal, and in the Gentle- 



PREFACE. 41 

Notwithstanding the failure to prove the chief charge, 
instead of honestly acquitting the defendants, the Lord 
Keeper Coventry told the court that out of the King's 
grace, and his joy at the birth of a son, he would not 
proceed to demand sentence, but would pardon them. 
A base charge was however trumped up against Sir 
Eobert Cotton, that he had records and evidences in 
his library belonging to the King, and Commissioners 
were appointed to search his library, and withdraw from 
it all such. This was a death blow to that excellent 
person ; he is said to have declined in health from that 
day, and to have frequently declared that they had 
broken his heart by locking up his library from him 
without rendering any reason. He died in 1631. 

The court, probably weary of a fruitless contest with 
men who were determined not to surrender their rights, 
at length found it expedient to relax their angry sever- 
ity; those who were confined in the Tower were released 
from close confinement, and allowed such liberty as could 
be enjoyed within the walls, and were permitted to have 
free communication with their friends ; they were how^- 
ever made to pay for this indulgence, their diet, which 
had been hitherto at the expense of the state, being 
stopped. 

Selden and Mr. Strode a short time afterward ob- 
tained their removal by habeas corpus to the Marshal- 
sea, and though Selden was detained there until May, 
1630, he was allowed to go without the walls as often. 



man's Magazine, vol. xxxvii. p. 335. It is printed in the first 
volume of Rushworth, 



42 BIOGRAPHICAL 

as he wished ; and the plague soon after raging in the 
neighbourhood of that prison, Selden obtained permis- 
sion to be removed to the Gatehouse at Westminster, 
and at length was allowed to visit the Earl of Kent, at 
Wrest, where he soon recovered his health and spirits. 

His retirement was not however long undisturbed ; 
at Michaelmas term the judges complained to the Lord 
Treasurer of his removal without their concurrence, 
and he was consequently remanded to his previous place 
of imprisonment ; but in May, 1631, his legal services 
being required in some law- suits between the Earls of 
Arundel, Pembroke, Kent and Shrewsbury, the two 
first named, by their influence, obtained his liberation, 
when he was only required to give bail for his appear- 
ance, and finally in 1634, upon his petition, he was 
discharged. 

Besides the conduct of these suits which related to 
the succession to some estates and the baronies of Grey 
and Euthyn, Selden was retained as counsel for Lord 
Reay in his charge of treason against David Eamsay, 
which afterwards gave rise to the curious proceedings 
in the Earl Marshal's Court for a trial by single com- 
bat ; but when the day was appointed the King forbade 
the encounter.* 

* I have a curious cotemporary MS. account of these pro- 
ceedings which bears the following inscription : 

" The manner of the proceeding between Donald L. Reay & 
David Ramsey, Esqr. Their coming to & carriage at their Tryall 
beginning upon Munday, Novemb. 28. 1631, Before Robt. Earle 
of Lindsay, L. Constable, & Thomas Earle of Arundell & Surrey, 
L. Marshall of England, Philip Earle of Pembroke & Mont- 
gomery L. Chamberlaine of His Majestie's Household, Edward 



PREFACE. 43 

While confined in the Marshalsea, Selden employed 
his time in composing his treatise, " De Successionibus 
in Bona Defuncti ad Leges Ebrseorum," which was 
first printed in 1634, and an enlarged edition was pub- 
lished in 1636, when an essay on the ecclesiastical 
polity of the Hebrews, entitled " De Successionibus in 
Pontificatum Ebrseoruin," was added, which appears to 
have been written in his retirement at Wrest, in the 
summer of 1634. Both works were again printed, 
with additions, atLeyden, in 1638. Indeed almost all 
Selden's learned disquisitions were immediately re- 
printed on the Continent, the editions being sometimes 
superintended by himself, and sometimes by distin- 
guished continental scholars. These works were dedi- 
cated to Archbishop Laud, as a token of gratitude for 
the assistance he had afforded Selden in obtaining ma- 
terials for their composition. 

The passion for those singular pageants termed 
Masques, which had distinguished the Court of James, 
and which had made Wilson describe it as " a con- 
tinued Maskarado," prevailed no less in that of Charles ; 
these the puritan party considered as " sinful and ut- 
terly unlawful to Christians," as Prynne expresses it 
in his Histriomastix, a large volume levelled against 
these courtly amusements, in common with all theatrical 

I E. of Dorset L. Chamberlaine of the Qu. James Earl of Carlisle 
I E. of Montgrave, Earle of Morten, Yiscount Wimbledon, Viscount 

Wentworth, Viscount Falkeland, and Sir Henry Martin Knight. 

In the painted chamber neere to the upper house of Parliamt." 
'To which is appended an interesting account of " The waie of 

Duels before the King." 



44 BIOGRAPHICAL 

exhibitions, and it was probably to disclaim any parti- 
cipation in these puritanic views that the four Inns of 
Court united in exhibiting a masque before the King 
and Queen, in 1633, the poetry of which was by Ben 
Jonson, the scenic decorations by Inigo Jones, and 
Selden assisted Lord Bacon in settling the dresses and 
devices. "Whitelocke had the arrangement of the 
music, and in his memorials, he has left us an amusing 
record of its conduct, in which he complacently ob- 
serves, " It was so performed, that it excelled any pre- 
viously heard in England. The dances, figures, proper- 
ties, voices, instruments, songs, airs, composures and 
actions, passed without any failure; the scenes were 
most curious and costly." But sic transit, " this earthly 
pomp and glory, if not vanity, was soon passed and 
gone as if it had never been." 

In the year 1B09, Grotius published his " Mare Li- 
berum," maintaining that the sea is a territory open 
and free to the use of all nations, but obviously intended 
as a defence of the maritime rights of the Dutch. This 
incited Selden to the composition of an answer, which 
he entitled "Mare Clausum," the intention of which 
may be gathered from its enlarged title thus inter- 
preted : " The Closed Sea ; or Two Books concerning 
the Dominion of the Sea. In the first it is demon- 
strated that the sea, by the law of nature and of na- 
tions, is not common to mankind, but is capable of 
private dominion, or property, equally with the land. 
In the second, it is maintained that the King of Great 
Britain is Lord of the circumfluent sea, as an insepa- 
rable and perpetual appendage of the British Empire." 



PREFACE. 45 

In the summer of 1618, pursuant to the royal com- 
mand, Selden prepared it for the press, and it was laid 
before the King, who referred it to Sir Henry Martin, 
Judge of the Admiralty Court, by whom it was ap- 
proved. Buckingham sent for Selden, and was about 
to write the Imprimatur, when suddenly laying down 
the pen, he said, " The King shall do this with his own 
hand in honour of the work," and forthwith brought 
Selden to the royal presence ; the Monarch was about 
to sign, but suddenly remarked : " I recollect some- 
thing is said here concerning the North Sea which may 
displease my brother of Denmark, whom I would not 
now offend, because I owe him a large sum of money, 
and intend shortly to borrow a larger." Selden was 
accordingly ordered to alter this passage, but on re- 
turning with his manuscript, found it so difficult to 
obtain an audience that he withdrew. The work was 
laid aside until the year 1635, when the Dutch having 
monopolised the Northern Fishery, and their right to 
take herrings on our shores being disputed, the work 
of Grotius and some other publications issued from the 
Elzevir press in defence of their claim. Selden's work 
was mentioned to King Charles, and he commanded 
its publication after a revisal by the author, and a pre- 
vious examination by the King and some of his minis- 
ters. The following minute of Privy Council will show 
I how satisfactory and important the work was considered: 
" His Majesty, this day in council, taking into consi- 
deration a book lately published by John Selden, Esq. 
i entitled ' Mare Clausum, seu Dominio Maris,' written 
at the King's command, which he hath done with great 



46 BIOGRAPHICAL 

industry, learning, and judgment, and hath asserted 
the right of the Crown of England to the dominion of 
the British Seas ; the King requires one of the said 
hooks to he kept in the Council chest, another in the 
Court of Exchequer, and a third in the Court of Ad- 
miralty, as faithful and strong evidence to the dominion 
of the British Seas." 

The Mare Clausum was translated into English by 
Marchmont Needham, and published in 1652, with an 
appendix of additional documents by President Brad- 
shaw, and an improved version by J. H. was again 
printed in 1663. 

We have but little recorded of Selden's occupations 
from 1635 to 1640 ; these years were most probably 
occupied by literary and forensic employments, of 
which, researches into legal antiquities formed at least 
a part, for his treatise " De Jure Naturali et Gentium 
juxta disciplinam Ebraeorum" was published in the 
latter year. 

The series of arbitrary and oppressive acts of mis- 
government which mark this period, may be found 
recorded in the pages of Clarendon, of Whitelocke, of 
Rushworth, and Eranklyn, the facts being the same 
though viewed in different lights according to the pre- 
judices of the writer. The oppressions of the Council 
Board and of the Star Chamber ; the iniquitous mock 
trials of Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick, and the still 
more iniquitous punishments with which they were 
visited : the persecution of Bishop Williams, who had 
been Lord Keeper, for daring to oppose the plans of 
Laud and Buckingham ; but above all, the active en- 



PBEFA CE. 47 

deavours to subjugate the religious opinions of the 
people, and the illegal attempts at raising supplies, are 
some of the distinguishing features of these times, when 
arbitrary attempts were made to govern without a par- 
liament. 

Baffled in all his endeavours to replenish his ex- 
chequer, the King was at length constrained to sum- 
mon a parliament, which met in April, 1640 ; but of 
this Selden was not a member, and indeed it was dis- 
solved at the end of three weeks, though represented 
by Clarendon as " exceedingly disposed to please the 
King and do him service." And the same historian 
expresses his opinion of the evil consequences of these 
frequent and abrupt dissolutions, as measures unrea- 
sonable, unskilful, and precipitate. The King and his 
people parting at these seasons with no other respect 
and charity one towards the other, than persons who 
never meant to meet but in their own defence ; and he 
laments the traitorous councils that fomented this mu- 
tual mistrust. He tells us that within an hour after 
the dissolution, he met Oliver St. John, who, though 
usually taciturn and melancholy, was now smiling and 
communicative, saying that " he foresaw that the pro- 
. gress of events was all well ; that affairs must be worse 
before they were better ; that the parliament just ter- 
minated would never have done what was necessary." 

The same arbitrary and illegal course continued, 

ship-money was levied with severity, forced loans ex- 

' iacted, proposals were made to debase the currency, and 

the Government even had recourse to the swindling 

practice of purchasing goods on credit and selling them 



48 BIOGRAPHICAL 

at a loss for ready money. The war which had been 
recommenced to coerce the Scottish people did not pros- 
per, the King's army was more disposed to join the 
Scots than to draw their swords in his service, and 
defeat was the consequence. 

Thus circumstanced, the King was constrained to 
summon another parliament, which met on the 3rd of 
November ; of which it has been said, " that many 
thought it would never have a beginning, and after- 
ward that it would never have ended." The memo- 
rable acts of this Long Parliament, many of which 
entitle it to the gratitude of the country, will be familiar 
to every reader of our history. 

Selden's high reputation at this period is evinced by 
his being unanimously chosen as representative for the 
University of Oxford, and no stronger proof can be 
given that he was regarded by the King's party as not 
unfriendly to the cause of Monarchy. Indeed the 
moderate course he pursued had been so far mistaken, 
that Laud had declared that he would bring him over : 
Noy and Wentworth had been successfully tampered 
with, and it was presumed that one who had been their 
companion was not made of sterner stuff. 

On the first day of the meeting of this Parliament, 
Selden was nominated one of the committee to attend 
to the petitions against the Earl Marshal's Court, which 
had been promoted by Hyde, and which terminated in 
its abolishment. 

He was also appointed one of the committee of 
twenty-four, appointed to draw up a declaration or re- 
monstrance on the state of the nation, and this paper 



PREFACE. 49 

which contained a full and energetic exposure of griev- 
ances, gave occasion to Hyde to announce his desertion 
to the Court party, by publishing a reply to it ; and 
henceforth Selden was separated from his friend in the 
public path of politics, though, to the credit of both, 
their friendship remained unaltered, and Hyde on all 
occasions stood forth in defence of Selden' s conscientious 
conduct. 

It appears that Selden was included by the House 
in the list of those who were designed to be Strafford's 
accusers, and his name occurs in all the committees 
appointed to search for precedents, and other prelimi- 
nary arrangements, but he was not one of those ap- 
pointed to conduct the prosecution; from which cir- 
cumstance it has been presumed that, in his judgment, 
the evidence against this unfortunate nobleman was 
never satisfactory. Franklyn expressly says that Lord 
Digby and Selden were convinced by the Earl's de- 
fence, and left the prosecution when the Bill of Attainder 
was introduced. They were in the minority of 59 who 
voted against it, and were honoured by the rabble with 
the epithets of Straffordians and betrayers of their 
country. 

Selden's name is found in the lists of various com- 
mittees at this time, and especially on those appointed 
to examine into the illegal proceedings in the exchequer 
respecting ship-money ; and upon the treaty with the 
Scotch at Eipon ; and on the appointment of a Custos 
Begni during the King's absence in Scotland. 

But his most prominent position was the part he 
took when the state of the Established Church was 



50 BIOGRAPHICAL 

brought before the House. In the declaration of 
grievances, those relating to religion and ecclesiastical 
affairs were chief features, and now met with earnest 
attention. The clergy, as Selden himself remarks, 
were never more learned ; no man taxed them with 
ignorance, hut they had worse faults. They were too 
inattentive to their religious duties, and interfered too 
much with political affairs. 

During the suspension of parliaments, a convocation 
of the clergy had drawn up new canons and ordinances, 
and the House now appointed a committee, of which 
Selden was a memher, to enquire into these matters. 
Clarendon justly ohserves that " The convocation made 
canons, which it thought it might do ; and gave sub- 
sidies out of parliament, and enjoined oaths, which 
certainly it might not do : in a word did many things 
which in the best of times might have been questioned, 
and therefore were sure to be questioned in the worst, 
and drew the same prejudice upon the whole body of 
the clergy, to which before only some few clergymen 
were exposed." 

While some from political, and others from theolo- 
gical motives were bent upon overthrowing the Church 
Establishment, Selden pursued that temperate course 
which shows that he was friendly to its doctrines and 
discipline, and only an enemy to the abuse of ecclesi- 
astical power in whatever hands it may be placed. 

The members of the Convocation, and especially the 
prelates, were justly alarmed at the proposed enquiry, 
and a letter from Laud to Selden on this occasion, 
written in an humble and imploratory strain, evinces 



PREFACE. 51 

the terror excited from the consciousness of having ex- 
ercised with little moderation the powers with which 
an arbitrary Government had invested them. 

Upon the presentation of a remonstrance to Parlia- 
ment from certain sectarian ministers respecting church 
government, Rushworth has preserved to us a curious 
specimen of the kind of logomachy* which sometimes 
took place. Selden had protested against the discus- 
sion of religious topics in the House, and the debate 
proceeded upon the right of bishops to suspend the 
inferior clergy from the performance of their ministerial 
duties. In opposition to this Sir Harbottle Grimstone 
employed the following logic : " That Bishops are Jure 
divino is a question ; that Archbishops are not Jure 
divino is out of question. Now, that Bishops who are 
questioned whether Jure divino, or Archbishops, who 
out of question are not Jure divino, should suspend 
Ministers that are Jure divino, I leave to be consi- 
dered." 

To which Selden replied with great pleasantry and 
dialectic skill : " That the convocation is Jure divino is 
a question ; that parliaments are not Jure divino is out 

* Upon one occasion an Alderman (probably Pennington) said, 
" Mr. Speaker, there are so many clamours against such and such 
of the Prelates, that we shall never be quiet till we have no more 
Bishops." Upon this Selden rose and desired the House to 
observe, " what grievous complaints there were for high misde- 
meanours, against such and such of the Aldermen ; and therefore, 
by a parity of reason, it is my humble motion that we have no 
more Aldermen." 

L'Estrange's Reflections upon Poggius's Fable of a Priest and 
Epiphany, part i. 364. 



52 BIOGRAPHICAL 

of question; that religion is Jure divino there is no 
question. Now, Sir, that the convocation, which is 
questionable whether Jure divino, and parliaments, 
which out of question are not Jure divino, should med- 
dle with religion, which, questionless is Jure divino, I 
leave to your consideration !" 

Sir Harbottle, pursuing his argument, observed, 
" that Archbishops are not Bishops." To which Selden 
rejoined, u that is no otherwise true than that judges 
are no lawyers, and aldermen no citizens." 

Dr. Aikin has observed, that " Selden well knew 
there was a standing committee of religion in parlia- 
ment, and that the ecclesiastical discipline and govern- 
ment, if not the doctrines of the Church, were regarded 
by a large party as proper subjects of parliamentary 
discussion, and that therefore this was mere dialectical 
fencing." 

A declaration against Episcopacy was read in the 
House on the 31st January, 1641, and though Selden 
used all his learning and reasoning to defeat it, his 
opposition was vain, for the Bishops were deprived of 
their seats in parliament, and the clergy proscribed 
from holding any civil office, early in the following 
month. The abolition of Episcopacy followed, which 
was finally voted in September, 1642, as Selden had 
foretold. 

Though now so actively engaged in the great poli- 
tical struggle, Selden seems to have still found time 
for his favourite literary pursuits, and one of his most 
elaborate works was published in 1640. This was the 
treatise, " De Jure JNaturali et Gentium juxta discipli- 



PREFACE. 53 

nam Ebrseorum." The design is supposed to have been 
suggested by the celebrated work of Grotius, " Be Jure 
Belli et Pacis," but its subject and method are totally 
different, and its motto, from Lucretius : " Loca nullius 
ante trita solo, Sfc" claims for its subject the merit of 
entire novelty. It is without a dedication, a circum- 
stance which indicates the dubious complexion of the 
time of its appearance, but the preface presents an 
analysis of the work, which the variety of its matter, 
and intricacy of its arrangement rendered highly neces- 
sary. "It was Selden's professed object to exhibit 
Jewish law as laid down by the Jewish writers them-^ 
selves, he was therefore constrained in some measure 
to follow their method, and it cannot be denied that he 
has made his work a valuable repertory of all that his- 
tory or tradition has preserved concerning the Hebrew 
institutions, before and after the Mosaic dispensation. 
In that view it has been much commended, both at 
home and abroad, and it made a large addition to the 
reputation he already possessed for indefatigable in- 
dustry and profound erudition. An abridgment was 
published by Buddeus, at Halle, in 1695."* 

Milton has incidentally given his opinion of this 
work and its author, in his " Areopagitica," addressed 
to the Parliament, which it may not be uninteresting to 
annex. " Bad meals will scarce breed good nourish- 
ment in the healthiest concoction : but herein the dif- 
ference is of bad books, that they to a discreet and 
judicious reader serve in many respects to discover, to 

* Aikin's Life of Selden, p. 111. 



54 BIOGRAPHICAL 

confute, to forewarn, to illustrate, whereof what hetter 
witness can ye expect I should produce than one of 
your own now sitting in parliament, the chief of learned 
men reputed in this land, Mr. Selden, whose volume 
of natural and national laws proves, not only by great 
authorities brought together, but by exquisite reasons, 
and theorems almost mathematically demonstrative, that 
all opinions, yea errors, known, read, and collated are 
of main service and assistance toward the speedy attain- 
ment of what is truest." The allusion is to the first 
chapter of Selden's work, where he has thought it ne- 
cessary to accumulate a mass of authority in justifica- 
tion of publishing to the world a variety of different and 
contradictory opinions. Milton has also mentioned 
Selden's work with high eulogy in his " Doctrine and 
Discipline of Divorce," chap. 22. 

Selden's name appears among those members of the 
House of Commons, who signed a protestation in May, 
1641, that they would maintain the protestant religion 
according to the doctrine of the Church of England, 
and would defend the person and authority of the King, 
the privileges of parliament and the rights of the subject. 
In this protestation almost the whole House concurred, 
and it was probably only intended to obviate any charge 
of unconstitutional intentions.* 

The reader need not now be told that Selden was in 
politics ever inclined to moderation, and that leagued 
with a few true lovers of their country, not less deserv- 
ing of, though less known to fame than those who figure 

Aikin, p. 113. 



PREFACE. 55 

prominently in its annals, he pursued a temperate and 
thoughtful course, as a legislator and a patriot. It was 
at the lodgings of Pym and of Selden that the leaders 
of the moderate party met to arrange the course to be 
pursued in Parliament, as the more violent opposers of 
the Government met in a similar manner at the houses 
of Cromwell, Haselrigge, and Oliver St. John. 

With these moderate views, Selden was enabled 
sometimes to restrain the violence occasionally offered to 
the legal course of justice, and when it was once pro- 
posed that the pay of some officers suspected of plotting 
against the Parliament should cease,* he reminded the 
House that as there was no judgment or charge passed 
against them, they could not have incurred a forfeiture. 

The advantage which the King's affairs would have 
gained from the influence of the party to which Selden 
belonged, was defeated by the ill-advised impeachments 
of the five members, for alleged offences committed by 
them in their places as members of Parliament, and by 
the subsequent attempt to seize them, which must be 
familiar to the reader of our annals. By this flagrant 
breach of the privilege of Parliament, and the violent and 
illegal procedure which marked it, a spirit was roused 
which gave an ascendancy to the more violent opposition- 
ists. A committee was appointed to sit within the pre- 
cincts of London protected by a guard of citizens, to 
decide upon the remonstrances and reports of sub-com- 

* An account of this transaction may be found in a letter of 
Secretary Nicholas to Charles I. printed in Evelyn's Memoirs, 
vol. v. pp. 11-12, and in the Pari. Hist. ix. 531. Johnson's 
Mem. of Selden, p. 268. 



56 BIOGRAPHICAL 

mittees ; to one of which Selden was nominated, to whom 
was deputed the examination of the violation of the 
privileges and the framing a petition to the King. 

A proclamation directing the apprehension of the five 
members was drawn up by order of Charles, which the 
Lord Keeper Lyttleton refused to seal ; it was however 
placed upon Whitehall Grate, but was suppressed by order 
of Parliament in a few days. 

Charles had now removed to York, and from thence, 
Lord Clarendon relates, " sent an order to the Lord 
Falkland, to require the seal from the Lord Keeper, 
though he was not resolved to what hand to commit it." 
The Lord Chief Justice Banks and Selden were mentioned 
by him to Culpepper and Hyde, whose opinion he re- 
quired. Banks was not thought equal to the charge in 
times of such turbulence, and " they did not doubt Mr. 
Selden's affection to the King, but they knew him so well 
that they concluded he would absolutely refuse the place 
if it was offered to him. He was in years, and of tender 
constitution ; he had long enjoyed his ease, which he 
loved ; was rich, and would not have made a journey to 
York, or have lain out of his own bed for any prefer- 
ment, which he had never affected." * 



* The following letter given from the Harding MSS. in the 
Biogr. Brittan. fully confirms Lord Clarendon's opinion. Selden 
was always opposed to the King's friends being absent from Par- 
liament, v. Table Talk, the King, § 8 : 

Mr. Selden to the Marquis of Hertford. 
My Lord, 

I received from his most excellent Majesty a command for my 
waiting on him at York, and he is most graciously pleased to say 



PREFACE. 57 

The Parliament seem to have obtained information of 
this overture, for on the 4th of February, a peremptory 
order was issued for Mr. Selden and others to attend 
within three days at farthest, and to continue their service 
at the House.* Dr. Aikin has justly observed " that if 
principle can be inferred from actions, it could scarcely be 
expected that Selden was prepared to quit the parliamen- 
tary party, in whose measures he had for the most part 
concurred, and join the royalists, whom he had opposed." 
And in the struggle which ensued between the King and 
the Parliament respecting the Militia, and the Commis- 
sion of Array, the part he took makes it' evident that his 
principles were far from wavering, 

that I should make as much haste as my health will permit. I 
have been for many weeks, my Lord, very ill, and am still so 
infirm that I have not so much as any hope of being able to travel, 
much less such a journey. Yet, if that were all, I would willingly 
venture any loss of myself rather than not perform my duty to 
his Majesty. But if I were able to come, I call God to witness, 
I have no apprehension of any possibility of doing his Majesty 
service there. On the other side, it is most probable, or rather 
apparent that a member of the House of Commons, and of my 
condition, by coming thither, might thereby soon be a cause of 
some very sensible disturbance ; by this name I call whatsoever 
will at this time (as this would) doubtless occasion some further 
or other difference betwixt his Majesty and that House. My 
legal and humble affections to his Majesty and his service are, 
and shall be, as great and as hearty as any man's, and therefore, 
when I am able I shall really express them. But I beseech your 
Lordship be pleased, upon what I have represented, to preserve 
me from his Majesty's displeasure, which I hope too from his 
most excellent goodness towards me. Your Lordship's great 
and continued favours to me embolden me to make this suit, 
which granted will be a singular happiness to 

Your Lordship's, &c. 
* Journal of the H. of C. ii. 955. 



58 BIOGRAPHICAL 

Lord Clarendon's account of his conduct on this occa- 
sion will make this evident ; he says, " Mr. Selden had in 
the debate upon the Commission of Array in the House 
of Commons, declared himself very positively and with 
much sharpness against it, as a thing expressly without 
any authority of law, the statute upon which it was 
grounded being, as he said, repealed; and discoursed very 
much on the ill consequences which might result from 
submitting to it. He answered the arguments which had 
been used to support it ; and easily prevailed with the 
House not to like a proceeding which they knew was in- 
tended to do them hurt, and to lessen their authority. 
But his authority and reputation prevailed much farther 
than the House, and begat a prejudice against it in many 
well affected men without doors. When the King was 
informed of it, he was much troubled, having looked upon 
Mr. Selden as well disposed to his service ; and the Lord 
Falkland, with his Majesty's leave, writ a friendly letter 
to Mr. Selden, to know the reason why in such a conjunc- 
ture he would oppose the submission to the Commission 
of Array, which nobody could deny to have its original 
from law, and which many learned men still believed to 
be very legal, to make way for the establishment of an 
ordinance which had no manner of pretence to right ? 
He answered this letter very frankly, as a man who be- 
lieved himself in the right upon the Commission of Array, 
and that the arguments he had used against it could not 
be answered ; summing up those arguments in as few 
words as they could be comprehended in. But there he 
did as frankly inveigh against the Ordinance for the Mili- 
tia, which he said ' was without a shadow of law or pre- 



PREFACE. 59 

tence of precedent, and most destructive to the govern- 
ment of the kingdom : ' and he did acknowledge, ' that he 
had been the more inclined to make that discourse in the 
House against the Commission, that he might with the 
more freedom argue against the Ordinance : and was 
most confident that he should likewise overthrow the 
Ordinance, which he confessed, could he less supported ; 
and he did believe it would be much better if both were 
rejected, than if either of them should stand and remain 
uncontrouled.' But his confidence deceived him ; and he 
quickly found that they who suffered themselves to be en- 
tirely governed by his reason, when those conclusions 
resulted from it which contributed to their own designs, 
would not be at all guided by it, or submit to it, when it 
persuaded that which contradicted and would disappoint 
those designs. And so, upon the day appointed for the 
debate of their ordinance, when he applied all his facul- 
ties to the convincing them of the illegality and raon- 
strousness of it, by arguments at least as clear and de- 
monstrable as his former had been, they made no im- 
pression upon them, but were easily answered by those 
who with most passion insisted upon their own sense."* 
Whitelocke says "that Selden and divers other gentle- 
men of great parts and interest, accepted commissions of 
lieutenancy, and continued their service in Parliament.' 9 
If Selden did accept a deputy lieutenancy, he was certainly 
not personally active in the office, for other occupations 
detained him in London. He was one of a committee 
formed on the 23rd of May, for raising volunteers for an 

* Clarendon's Hist. v. i. p. 517, fol. ed. 



60 BIOGRAPHICAL 

expedition to Ireland, and on June 2nd, in a committee to 
frame an ordinance for augmenting the navy. He had 
strenuously opposed an appeal to arms, and all measures 
which tended to it, but when from the conduct of the 
King it became inevitable, there was no inconsistency 
in aiding the exertions of the party he had conscien- 
tiously espoused. 

The controversy which had arisen about the com- 
parative merits and claims of episcopal and presbyterian 
government in the Church, and which had been agitated 
by Petau and Saumaise and other learned continental 
writers, in England interested all, where episcopalian 
and presbyterian were almost other names for royalists 
and parliamentarian, and in his researches into anti- 
quity, Selden had been naturally led to this subject of 
dispute. A celebrated passage in Jerome mentions 
that in the Church of Alexandria, from its first founda- 
tion to nearly the close of the second century, the pres- 
byters always elected a bishop among themselves by 
their own authority. Of this fact a remarkable confir- 
mation exists in the account of the antiquities of the 
Alexandrian Church, contained in the Annals of the 
patriarch Eutychius, or Said Ibn Batrick, who flourished 
in the earlier part of the xth century. Of these Annals, 
which were written in the Arabic language, and had not 
been translated, Selden procured two MS. copies from 
which he now published an extract.* The part relat- 



* The title runs thus : Eutychii iEgyptii, Patriarch® ortho- 
doxorum Alexandrini, Scriptoris, ut in Oriente admodum vetusti 
et illustris, ita in Occidente turn paucissimis visi, turn perraro 



PREFACE. 61 

ing to the controversy is a statement that the evange- 
list Mark, having converted and baptized one Hannanius, 
a shoemaker of Alexandria, constituted him patriarch of 
that city, and appointed eleven other persons to be pres- 
byters, with the injunction that when the patriarchate 
should become vacant, they should choose one of their 
number, and consecrate him patriarch by the imposition 
of their hands, at the same time electing a person to 
fill his place in the presbytery : so that there should 
always be 12 presbyters, the patriarch being reckoned 
as one ; and that this mode continued in practice to the 
time of the Patriarch Alexander, who directed that 
thenceforth on the decease of a patriarch, a new one 
should be ordained by an assembly of bishops.* 

The publication of this piece involved Selden in hos- 
tilities with the zealous advocates of Episcopacy, both 
Protestant and Eoman Catholic ; but the English epis- 
copalian party do not then appear to have entered into 
the controversy, they had too much already upon their 
hands in contending with their more formidable adver- 
sary the parliament, f 



auditi, Ecclesiae suss origines. Ex ejusdem Arabico nunc primum 
Typis edidit ac Versione et commentario auxit Joannes Seldenus, 

The whole Annals of Eutychius were subsequently translated 
by Dr. Pococke, at Selden's instance : and he provided funds for 
the publication ; but they did not appear until after his death in 
1658. 

* Aikin's Life of Selden, p. 123, et seq. 

f It was the cause of truth rather than of presbyterianism 
which incited Selden to this publication, for in many parts of his 
other works he expressly favours episcopacy. And it is remark- 
able enough that Pococke did not much affect the task of trans- 



62 BIOGRAPHICAL 

The calm and dispassionate moderation of Selden and 
the resistance he occasionally offered to violent measures, 
caused some of the popular leaders to hold him in sus- 
picion. When the plot for introducing the royal forces 
into London, and disarming the Militia was discovered, 
and Waller, the poet, (a principal conspirator,) was 
examined before the House, he was asked whether 
Selden, Whitelocke and others named were acquainted 
with the design. To which he replied, " that they were 
not, but that he did come one evening to Selden's study, 
where Wkitelocke and Pierpoint then were with Selden, 
on purpose to impart it to them all ; and speaking of 
such a thing in general terms, these gentlemen did so 
inveigh against any such thing as treachery and base- 
ness, and that which might be the occasion of shedding 



lation, being an Episcopalian. The authority of Eutychius has 
been since much invalidated by Morinus, Renaudot, Hammond, 
Walton, and Pearson. See Twell's Life of Pococke, p. 216-17. 
Ed. 1816. Selden probably caused it to be published, because 
it favoured his own opinion that the government of the Church, 
as much as the government of the rest of the state, is subject to 
the will of the legislature. See the article u Bishops out of Par- 
liament" in the Table Talk. Provost Baillie and Baxter represent 
Selden as the head of the Erastians, i. e. of those who consider 
the Church to be part of the civil polity of a state : they were 
so named after Thomas Erastus, a Swiss physician, who was for 
restraining the ecclesiastical power from all temporal jurisdiction. 
The title of his work, which is exceedingly rare, is " Explicatio 
Gravissimre Qua?stionisutmm Excommunicato, quatenus Religi- 
onem intelligentes et amplexantes, a Sacramentorum usu, propter 
admissum facinus arcet ; mandato nitatur Divino, an excogitata 
sit ab hominibus." 4to. Pesclavii, 1589. Selden has manifested 
in several places of the Table Talk, and elsewhere, his acquaint- 
ance with this volume. 



PREFACE. 63 

much blood, that he durst not for the respect he had 
for Selden and the rest, communicate any of the par- 
ticulars to them, but was almost disheartened himself 
to proceed in it." * 

In June, 1643, an ordinance was made for assembling 
a synod of divinesf and laymen at Henry VII. chapel 
in Westminster " to settle the government and liturgy 
of the Church of England." Among the lay members 
were Selden and Whitelocke, and we are told by the 
latter that " Selden spoke admirably and confuted them 
in their own learning, and sometimes when they had 
cited a text of scripture to prove their assertion, he 
would tell them ' perhaps in your little pocket bibles 
with gilt leaves, (which they would often pull out and 
read) the translation may be thus, but the Greek or 
Hebrew signifies thus and thus/ and so would silence 
them." 

Baillie, Principal of the University of Glasgow, one 

* Whitelocke's Mem. p. 66. 

f The Assembly of Divines consisted of 10 peers, 20 members 
of the House of Commons, about 20 episcopal divines, and 100 
other persons, most of which were presbj'terians, a few indepen- 
dents, and some to represent the Kirk of Scotland, Few of the 
episcopal divines ever attended, and those who did soon left 
them. Clarendon says, " Except these few episcopal divines the 
rest were all declared enemies to the Church of England ; some 
of them infamous in their lives and conversation ; most of them 
of very mean parts in learning, if not of scandalous ignorance, 
and of no other reputation- than of malice to the Church of Eng- 
land." Baxter, on the contrary, says, They were men of eminent 
learning, godliness, ministerial abilities, and fidelity, and that as 
far as he was able to judge, the Christian world since the days 
of the Apostles, had never a synod of more excellent divines, 
than this synod and the synod of Dort. 



64 BIOGRAPHICAL 

of the Scotch deputies to this assembly, has graphically 
described it, and tells us that " those who speak harangue 
long and learnedly. I do marvel at the very accurate 
replies that many of them usually make."* Sermons, 
prayer and fasting were part of their ordinary discipline, 
and the same writer gives us the account of a day which 
he designates " spending from nine to five very gra- 
ciously." — " After Dr. Twisse, (the prolocutor) had be- 
gun with a short prayer, Mr. Marshall prayed large 
two hours. After, Mr. Arrowsmith preached an hour, 
then a psalm ; thereafter Mr, Vines prayed nearly two 
hours, and Mr. Palmer preached an hour, and Mr. Sea- 
man prayed near two hours, then a psalm ; after, Mr. 
Henderson preached, and Dr. Twisse closed with a 
short prayer and blessing." 

But their patient perseverance in devotion did not 
unfit them for convivial enjoyment when it offered. At 
an entertainment given by the Corporation of London, 
to the two Houses of Parliament and the assembly, at 
Taylor's Hall, in January, 1644, Baillie informs us 
" the feast was very great, valued at 4000Z. sterling, 
yet we had no desert, nor music, but drums and trum- 
pets. All was concluded with a psalm, whereof Dr. 
Burgess read the line ! There was no excess in any 
we heard of. The Speaker of the House of Commons 
drank to the Lords in the name of all the Commons of 
England. The Lords stood up every one with his glass, 
for they represent none but themselves, and drank to 
the Commons." 

* Baillie's Letters and Journals, i. 369. 



PRE FA CE. 65 

In such fantastic forms did the prevalent religious 
enthusiasm manifest itself, and some it rendered insane ; 
many were doubtless sincere well-meaning men, but 
the garb of fanaticism was assumed by many profligate 
worthless wretches. The title of puritan is said to have 
been sarcastically given in allusion to the superlative 
innocency and spirituality which the chief of them pro- 
fessed, but it was first applied about the year 1559 to 
those who sought to purify the worship and discipline 
of the Church from what they conceived to be relics of 
Papistry. It was the fashion of the time to wear the 
hair in flowing locks, but the puritans " cut their hair 
so close that it would scarce cover their ears ; many cut 
it quite close round their heads with so many little 
peaks that it was something ridiculous to behold," and 
this acquired them the name of Eoundheads. Mrs. 
Hutchinson says K that though her husband acted with 
the Puritan party, they would not allow him to be re- 
ligious, because his hair was not in their cut." * Selden 
is reported to have said " he trusted he was not either 
mad enough or foolish enough to deserve the name of 
Puritan." He was certainly no Mend to the synod. f 

* Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson, p. 100. 

f Sir John Birkenhead in his "Assembly Man" says, "What 
opinion the learned Mr. Selden had of them, appears from the 
following account : The House of Parliament once made a ques- 
tion, whether they had best admit Archbishop Usher to the As- 
sembly of divines ? He said they had as good enquire, whether 
they had best admit Inigo Jones, the King's Architect, to the 
company of mouse-trap makers :" and again, " Mr. Selden visits 
the Assembly, as Persians used, to see wild asses fight : when 
the Commons have tired him with their new law, these brethren 
E 



66 BIOGRAPHICAL 

The jure divino question lasted 30 days, the Erastians 
did not except against a presbyterial government as a 
political institution proper to be established by the 
civil magistrate, but they were decidedly against the 
claim of a clivhu right. Selden with the rest was of 
this mind, apprehending that presbytery would prove as 
arbitrary and tyrannical as prelacy if it came in with a 
divine claim. 

Among the few episcopalians nominated members of 
the assembly was Selden's early friend the learned and 
liberal Archbishop Usher ; their intimacy commenced in 
the year 1609, when Usher, then Professor of Divinity 
at Trinity College, Dublin, was in London purchasing 
books for its library. Usher not only declined to take 
part in the proceedings of the assembly, as it was con- 
stituted, but maintained by all means in his power the 
reasonableness of the established form of Church Go- 
vernment. Having preached against the authority and 
purpose of the synod, he drew down upon himself the 



refresh him with their mad gospel : They lately were gravelled 
betwixt Jerusalem and Jericho, they knew not the distance 
between those two places ; one cried 20 miles, another ten. It 
was concluded seven for this reason, that fish was brought from 
Jericho to Jerusalem-market : Mr. Selden smiled and said, per- 
haps the fish was salt fish, and so stopped their mouths." 

Cleveland, in a poem entitled " The mixt Assembly," thus 
alludes to Selden's superiority over those with whom he had to 
contend in this Synod : 

Thus every Ghibelline has got his Guelf : 
But Selden he's a Galliard by himself; 
And well may be ; there's more Divines in him, 
Than in all this their Jewish Sanhedrim. 



PREFACE. 67 

displeasure of the Parliament, an ordinance was made 
for the confiscation of his library, then in Chelsea Col- 
lege, and it would have been sold and dispersed had not 
Selden obtained permission for Dr. Featly, a member 
of the synod, to purchase it as if for his own use for a 
trifling sum. In June, 1646, he performed another act 
of kindness to his venerable friend, who was called be- 
fore a board of examiners at Westminster, and required 
to take the negative oath which was imposed upon all 
who had been adherents of the King. Usher desired 
time to consider of it, and being dismissed for that time, 
he was spared the necessity of a second appearance, by 
the exertions of Selden and his other parliamentary 
friends, who obtained permission for him to retire into 
the country. 

By a vote of the House, November 8, 1643, Selden 
was appointed Keeper of the Records in the Tower ; an 
office for which he was peculiarly fitted, and which pro- 
bably furnished him with an excuse for gradually with- 
drawing from the political vortex, where he found him- 
self almost alone in his position as a moderator. Yet 
upon important occasions he was still to be found at his 
post as long as he thought he could be useful. We are 
not informed how long he retained the office of Keeper 
of the Eecords, but it was probably resigned on the 
passing of the Self-denying Ordinance in 1645. 

In February, 1645-6, he subscribed the solemn 
league and covenant ; he had used his best endeavours 
to preserve the monarchical form of government, and a 
moderate episcopacy, but it was now evident that the 
cause of both was lost, and the train of events which 



68 BIOGRAPHICAL 

had precipitated the fall of both, had probably shown 
him that further resistance was vain. 

The attainder and trial of Archbishop Laud now took 
place, and Selden appears to have taken no part in that 
transaction ; yet, when the parliamentary Commission- 
ers had seized upon the Archbishop's Endowment of the 
Arabick Professorship at Oxford, he exerted himself to 
obtain its restitution, which he ultimately effected about 
the middle of 1647. 

In 1644 he printed his chronological work, " De 
Anno Civili Yeteris Ecclesise, seu KepublicaB Judaicse, 
Dissertatio," in which are discussed all the points rela- 
tive to the Jewish Calendar, derived from the Talmud- 
ists or traditional writers of the Jewish Church, and 
displaying the author's usual profundity of erudition. 
The preface points out the importance of the enquiry 
to the right understanding of the scriptures and the 
necessity of resorting to these sources of elucidation. 

In April, 1645, a committee of six Lords and twelve 
Commoners being appointed to conduct the business of 
the Admiralty, Selden was nominated one of the com- 
missioners ; but before they entered upon the duties of 
then office, the plan was altered, probably in conse- 
quence of the passing of the Self-denying Ordinance, 
and three commissioners selected from the whole num- 
ber were invested with the power. Selden was not one 
of the three named. 

In May of this year, the House of Commons entered 
an order on their journals " for Mr. Selden to bring in 
an Ordinance for regulating the Herald's office, and the 
Heraldry of the Kingdom," and upon a debate on an 



PREFACE. 69 

ordinance for discharging the wardship of the heirs of 
Sir Christopher Wray, who had died in the service of 
the Parliament, the abuses and oppressions incident to 
wardships were so forcibly pointed out by Selden, May- 
nard, St. John, Whitelocke, and other lawyers, that it 
gave rise to an order for the abolition of the Court of 
Wards and its feudal appendages. The vote was passed 
by the Commons, sanctioned by the Lords, and ordered 
to be printed in the course of one day. 

Upon the death of Dr. Eden, master of Trinity Hall, 
in Cambridge, in August, 1645, Selden was unanim- 
ously chosen to succeed him, with such universal appro- 
bation as added much to the honour conferred by the 
choice. Selden declined the charge as he had all other 
honourable charges that sought his acceptance. He was 
now in years, was rich, he loved his literary leisure, and 
he was connected with the sister university ; these may 
be conceived sufficient motives for the refusal of an hon- 
our which few men would have declined. But though 
he declined this intimate connection with the University 
of Cambridge, he was ever ready to do it similar ser- 
vices to those he had rendered to Oxford. Dr. Ban- 
croft had left his library to his successors in the See of 
Canterbury on condition that his successor should give 
security that he would leave it entire and without dimi- 
nution to the next Archbishop in succession ; but in case 
of refusal to give such security, he bequeathed it to 
Chelsea College, then building, if that building should 
be finished within six years after his decease. If this 
did not occur, his library was to go to the University of 
Cambridge. The order of Bishops being abolished, and 



70 BIOGRAPHICAL 

Chelsea College abandoned, Selden suggested to the 
University that their right to the hooks had arisen on 
the contingent remainder. It consequently petitioned 
the Upper House, and Selden pleaded for them so suc- 
cessfully that the University obtained an order not only 
for Dr. Bancroft's books, but for those of Ins successor, 
Archbishop Abbot. They were however re-claimed for 
Lambeth by Archbishop Juxon, after the restoration, 
still Selden's interference had prevented their disper- 
sion, and preserved them for their original destination. 

D'Israeli has remarked that the republicans of Eng- 
land, like those of France in the next century, were in- 
fected with a hatred of literature and the arts \ he asserts 
that the burning of the Records in the Tower was cer- 
tainly proposed ; and that a speech of Selden's put a 
stop to these incendiaries.* 

The same fanatic spirit placed the Universities in 
danger of abolition, or at any rate of spoliation and re- 
striction. Bradshaw proposed an immediate visitation 
for this purpose, and Selden successfully objected to the 
injustice of such a proceeding, before the University 
had provided itself with legal assistance ; and in order 
to be of more effectual use, he obtained in 1647 the 
appointment of one of the Parliamentary Visitors of the 
University of Oxford. 

A letter from Dr. Gerard Langbaine, provost of 
Queen's College, expresses the warmest gratitude of the 
University for this interposition in its favour. u We 
are all abundantly satisfied in your unwearied care and 

* Curiosities of Literature, 2nd series, iii. 446. 



PREFACE. 71 

passionate endeavours for our preservation. "We know 
and confess, 

Si Pergama dextra 

Defendi poterant, etiam hac defensa fuissent. 

Of this we are confident, that (next under God's) it 
must be imputed to your extraordinary providence that 
we have stood thus long : you have been the only belli 
mora, and 

Quicquid apud nostrae cessatum est moenia Trojae, 
Hectoris, 

I cannot add iEneseque, for you had no second, 

manu victoria Graium 



Hsesit- 



By your good acts, and prudent manage, our six-months 
hath been spun unto two years, and it hath been thus 
far verified upon us, by your means, nee ca/pti potuere 
capi"* 

In 1646, Selden gave to the world one of the most 
curious and interesting of his works, entitled, "Uxor 
Ebraica ; seu de JSTuptiis et Divortiis ex Jure Civili, id 
est, Divino et Talmudico, veterum Ebraeorum, Libri 
tres." 

Having in his former work on Jewish natural and 
international law, treated of everything relating to the 
Hebrew matrimonial regulations that came under those 
two heads, in this work he completed his subject, adding 
all that relates to it from what he terms their civil law, 

* Leland's Collectanea, by Hearne,v. 282. Three other letters, 
written in Latin to him in the name of his Alma mater, are pre- 
served by Dr. Wilkins, and also two letters from the University 
of Cambridge, thanking him for his services. 



12 BIOGRAPHICAL 

that is, the matrimonial rites and ceremonies, customs 
and institutions proper to their nation, and derived from 
the Levitical law, or from the ancient ordinances of 
their rulers. He adds what he calls the stupendous 
doctrines of the Karaites respecting- incest ; and inci- 
dental notices of the modes of contracting and dissolv- 
ing marriages among Pagans, Mahomedans, and Chris- 
tians in the East and West, which have been either 
derived from Jewish customs or appear to resemble 
them.* 

In 1647, he published from a MS. in the Cotton 
library, the valuable old law treatise entitled " Eleta," 
so named from being compiled by its anonymous author 
while confined in the Fleet prison, most probably in the 
reign of Edward I. It is divided into six books ; the 
first treating of pleas of the crown; the second gives 
a full and curious account of the royal household, &c. 
illustrative of the history of those times, and the re- 
maining books contain the practice of the courts of ju- 
dicature, the forms of writs, explanations of law-terms 
and the like. 

Selden's preface contains many curious particulars 
relating to the early writers on the laws of England, 
Bracton, Britton, Fleta, and Thornton, and of the use 
which was made of the Imperial and Justinian Codes 
in England. 

A vote passed the House of Commons in 1646-7, 
awarding to Selden, and several others of his political 
associates during the reign of arbitrary power, the sum 

* Aikin's Life of Selden, 138. 



PREFACE. 73 

of five thousand pounds each "for their sufferings for 
opposing the illegalities of that time." Wood reports 
that some say Selden refused this grant, and said that 
he could not out of conscience take it ; but Walker in 
his History of Independency, says that Selden received 
half the money voted to him ; and on the Journals of 
the House there are two entries ordering payment of 
the moieties on the 11th of May, and 11th of Novem- 
ber, 1647. Selden, in a pecuniary point of view, cer- 
tainly did not want this recompense, and probably did 
not receive the second payment, for as Wood's author- 
ity observes, " his mind was as great as his learning, 
full of generosity, and harbouring nothing that seemed 



One of the last acts of Selden's political life was 
connected with the last effort to effect a reconciliation 
between the King and the Parliament, in which he had 
doubtless taken an active and earnest part. On the 
11th of December, Selden went up with a message to 
the Lords from the Commons, desiring their consent to 
four bills; concerning the management of the army and 
navy ; for justifying the proceedings of parliament in 
the late war; concerning the peerage ; and the adjourn- 
ment of both houses ; which were to be presented to 
his majesty for his assent. And when the Scotch Com- 
missioners desired that these bills might be communi- 
cated to them, Selden again appeared at the bar of the 
House of Lords with two resolutions, vindicating, from 
such interference, the independence of Parliament. 

But now perceiving that all was hopeless, that a 
military despotism and the King's ruin were inevitable, 



74 BIOGRAPHICAL 

he however unwilling, withdrew to those studies which 
had ever occupied all the leisure he could command ; 
yet in 1649, still solicitous for the interests of learning, i 
a vote being passed for the preservation of the hooks I 
and medals in the palace of St. James's, he persuaded , 
his friend Vhitelocke to accept the office, in order to ♦ 
prevent their being pillaged or dispersed. 

It is said that when the Eikon Basilike appeared, its 
influence in winning favour to the royal cause was so 
much feared, that an answer to it was deemed highly 
essential, and that Cromwell, more than once, instigated 
him both personally, and by his friends, to undertake the 
task, which he unhesitatingly declined ; and it was even- 
tually replied to by Milton in his " Iconoclastes," his 
republican principles making him not averse to it. 

In 1650, he sent to the press the first part of a work 
which he had written above twelve years before, but 
kept by him to correct and enlarge. This was his 
ample treatise " De Synedriis et Prefecturis Juridicis 
Veterum Ebrseoruni." It was intended to comprise 
everything recorded relating to the Sanhedrim or Ju- 
ridical Courts of the Jews both before and after the 
promulgation of the Mosaic law, with collateral notices 
of similar institutions in modem times and countries. 
In this first part he considers largely the subject of ex- 
communication, or the penal interdiction by ecclesiasti- 
cal authority of participation in sacred rites, a power to 
the assumption of which he had already shown himself 
a decided adversary. 

His preface almost entirely relates to this subject ; a 
peculiarly interesting one at the time, and the following 



PREFACE, 75 

passage is remarkable. Speaking of the divine right 
of excommunication claimed by different churches, he 
says, " Tins claim has not a few assertors, as well Ko- 
manists as Nonromanist Episcopalians, and Presbyter- 
ians, which latter insist upon it much more positively, 
and carry it much farther in their own favour ; for after 
having, in their manner, inveighed against this power 
in papal and episcopal hands, they have, as it were, cut 
it into shreds, and portioned it out among themselves, 
with a vast accession from that authority, which they 
so confidently attribute to their own order." 

The first book brings the subject down to the giving 
of the law at Mount Sinai. It was followed three years 
afterward by a second book, comprising the judicial 
history of the Jews to the destruction of the Temple. 
A third, which proposed to treat of the great Sanhedrim 
was left incomplete, and was not printed till after his 
death.* 

In 1652, he contributed a preface to the collection of 
ten monkish historians known as the Scrijptores post 
Bedam ; he was not the editor, but communicated some 
collations of MSS. from the Cotton library, and occa- 
sionally looked over the proof sheets. In his preface he 
endeavours to prove that the history of Simeon Dunel- 
mensis was really composed by Turgot, Prior of the 
Monastery of Durham, and Bishop of St. Andrew's; 
Simeon's claim has been however reasserted by Thomas 
Eudd, Keeper of the Durham Library. Selden inci- 
dentally gives some account of the Keledie or Culdees 

* Aikin's Life of Selden, pp. 146-7-8. 



76 BIOGRAPHICAL 

of Scotland, who long afforded an example of presby- 
terial ordination, without the intervention of a bishop. 
The last of his writings was a defence of himself, re- 
specting the composition of the " Mare Clausum," against 
Theodore Graswinckei, a Dutch Jurist, who in an an- 
swer to Burgus on the Dominion of the Genoese Sea, 
had mentioned Selden and his motives for composing 
the Mare Clausum in terms highly offensive to our illus- 
trious countryman. It is dated from his house in "White- 
friars, May 1, 1653, and is chiefly valuable for the par- 
ticulars it affords of some of the events of his life, 
especially relating to his different imprisonments. The 
motto indicates the keen feelings from which it sprang: 

" Contumeliam nee fortis potest, nee ingenuus pati." 

The infirmities of age now began to gain ground 
upon him, and he became sensible that his end was ap- 
proaching; on the 10th of November, 1654, he ad- 
dressed the following short note to his friend Whitelocke, 
then Keeper of the Great Seal : 

My Lord, 

I am a most humble suitor to your Lordship that 
you would be pleased that I might have your presence 
for a little time to-morrow, or next day. Thus much 
wearies the most weak hand and body of 

Your Lordship's most humble servant, 

J. Selden. 
Xov. 10, 1654, Whitefryars. 

These were probably the last lines he wrote. White- 



PREFACE. 77 

locke " went to him and was advised with about set- 
tling his estate and altering his will, and to be one of 
his executors ; but his weakness so increased, that his 
intentions were prevented." He died on the last day 
of November, 1654; within 16 days of the completion 
of his 70th year. According to Aubrey the disease 
which terminated his existence was dropsy. Death 
seems to have approached him without its terrors,* for 
his life had been well spent, and he had virtuously and 
conscientiously aimed at the welfare of his country, and 
the promulgation of truth. 

A short time before his death, it is related, he sent 
one afternoon for his friends Archbishop Usher, and Dr. 
Langbaine, and upon that occasion uttered these memo- 
rable words : " That he had surveyed most parts of the 
learning that was among the sons of men ; that he had 
his study full of books and papers of most subjects in 
the world ; yet at that time he could not recollect any 
passage out of those infinite books and manuscripts he 
was master of, wherein he could rest his soul, save out 
of the Holy Scriptures ; wherein the most remarkable 
passage that lay most upon his spirit was Titus ii. 11, 
12, 13, 14, 15."f The import of these verses is obe- 

* Aubrey tells us that he had his funeral scutcheons prepared 
some months before he died. 

f I have quoted this anecdote from Bishop Lloyd's " Fair 
Warnings to a Careless World," 1682, p. 140. It is repeated in 
a work attributed to George, Earl of Berkley, entitled " Historical 
Applications, and occasional meditations upon several subjects ;" 
the first edition of which was printed in 1670. But we learn from 
the preface to Lloyd's book, that part of it was printed in 1655, 
both at London and York, and that the edition of 1682 was en- 



78 BIOGRAPHICAL 

dience to the commands of God, and faith in the re- 
deeming sacrifice of our Saviour. Truths which Selden 
therefore regarded as the essence of the Christian reve- 
lation ; these had probably been the rule and guide of 
his life ; content with the religion of the Bible, and dis- 
gusted with the fanatic spirit of sectarian bigotry, con- 
tentious about unessential points of doctrine, and hurl- 
ing damnation upon those who differed from them in 
the most immaterial particulars. 

larged and published at a pious person's (Dr. T.'s) earnest request. 
In the margin of " Fair Warnings" we have the following note : 
" From Doctor Usher's mouth, whom he desired to preach at his 
funeral, and to give him the sacraments; at the celebration 
whereof a great scholar, as it is commonly reported, coming in, 
stared, saying, c I thought Selden had more learning, judgment, 
and spirit, than to stoop to obsolete forms.' " It is prefaced too, 
thus : " Master Selden who had comprehended all the learning 
and knowledge that is either among the Jews, Heathens, or Chris- 
tians ; and suspected by many of too little regard for religion, one 
afternoon before he died, &c." Later editions of the "Fair 
Warnings" were given, probably by a bookseller's fraud, under 
the name of Dr. Woodward. A gossiping story is told by Au- 
brey, that " when Selden was near death ; the Minister (Mr. 
Johnson) was coming to assoile him : Mr. Hobbes happened to 
be there ; say'd he, ' What, will you that have wrote like a man, 
now die like a woman? ' So the minister was not let in." This 
silly story has probably the same vague origin as that of Lloyd, 
in which the great scholar is perhaps meant to designate Hobbes. 
That Selden was a believer in Christianity cannot be doubted ; 
Baxter, his cotemporary, whose veracity cannot be doubted, says, 
"The Hobbians and other infidels would have persuaded the 
world that Selden was of their mind, but Sir Matthew Hale, his 
intimate friend and executor, assured me that Selden was an 
earnest professor of the Christian faith, and so angry an adver- 
sary to Hobbes, that he hath rated him out of the room." — 
Baxter s Diary, by Silvester, pt. 3, p. 48. 



PREFACE. 79 

He had himself prepared an epitaph in Latin, which 
is interesting as it records his estimate of his own cha- 
racter ; Dr. Aikin has given us the following version of 
it : after mentioning his admission to the Society of the 
Inner Temple, it proceeds thus : " He applied himself 
to the studies of the place neither remissly nor unsuc- 
cessfully; hut indulging his natural disposition, and 
little fitted for the hustle of courts, he betook himself to 
other studies as an enquirer. He was happy in friend- 
ships with some of the best, most learned, and illustrious 
of each order; but not without the heavy enmity of 
some intemperate adversaries of truth and genuine 
liberty ; under which he severely but manfully suffered. 
He served as burgess in several parliaments, both in 
those which had a King, and which had none."* 

Aubrey thus records the last honours paid to his 
mortal remains : " On Thursday the 14th day of Deer, 
he was magnificently buryed in the Temple Church. 
His Executors invited all the parliament men, all the 
benchers, and great officers. All the Judges had 
mourning, as also an abundance of persons of quality. 
His grave was about 10 foot deepe or better ; walled 
up a good way with bricks, of which also the bottome 
was paved, but the sides at the bottome for about two 
foot high were of black polished marble, wherein his 
coffin (covered with black bayes) lyeth, and upon that 
! wall of marble was presently let downe a huge black 



* Marchmont Needham, making mention of this epitaph in his 
' Mercurius Politicus, says, " it was well he did it, for no man else 
could do it for him." 



80 BIOGRAPHICAL 

marble stone of great thicknesse, with this inscription : 

Hie jacet Corpus Johamiis Seldeni qui obiit 
30 die Xovembris, 1654. 

Over this was turned an arch of brick, (for the house 
would not lose then ground,) and upon that was throwne 
the earth, &c. and on the surface lieth another faire 
grave stone of black marble with this inscription : 

I. Seldenvs I. C. heic situs est. 

There is a coate of arms on the flat marble, but it is 
indeed that of his mother, for he had none of his owne, 
though he so well deserved it. ? Tis strange (me thinke) 
that he would not have one." 

A mural monument to his memory was subsequently 
placed in the circular part of the Church. 

His friend Archbishop Usher, at the request of his 
executors, preached his funeral sermon, and among the 
eulogies which according to custom it contained, he said, 
" that he looked upon the deceased as so great a scholar, 
that himselfe was scarce worthy to carry his books after 
him." 

The Master of the Temple (Richard Johnson) read 
the burial service according to the form of the New 
Directory, and added at the close, " if learning could 
have kept a man alive, this our brother had not died." 

In person Selden was tall, being in height about six 
feet, his face was thin and oval, and the whole head not 
very large. His nose was long, and inclining to one 
side. His eyes were grey, and full and prominent. 

He kept a plentiful table, which was never without 
the society of learned guests. Though himself tern- 



PREFACE. 81 

perate in eating and drinking, he was accustomed to 
say jocularly, " I will keep myself warm and moist as 
long as I live, for I shall he cold and dry when I am 
dead."* His intimate friend Whitelocke says, " His 
mind was as great as his learning : he was as hospitable 
and generous as any man, and as good company to 
those whom he liked." Dr. Wilkins tells us that he 
could occasionally assume an ungracious austerity of 
countenance and manners, and this, as Dr. Aikin justly 
observes, " is not extraordinary and may be easily par- 
doned, for the persecutions he had undergone, and the 
weighty concerns in which he was engaged, joined to a 
naturally serious disposition, would be likely to produce 
that effect. In a period of civil discord, levity ought 
to give more offence to a thinking man than severity ; 
and it is a mark rather of an unfeeling than of a kind 
disposition, to appear easy and cheerful while friends 
and country are exposed to the most lamentable dis- 
tress.'^ 

His generosity was not confined to his convivial 
hours. Meric Casaubon was relieved by him with a 
considerable sum in time of need. He subscribed 
largely to the publication of Walton's Polyglot. He 
was the patron of Kelly when pursuing his antiquarian 
travels, and of Ashmole and Farington the antiqua- 
rians. He had detected the merits of Hale while yet 
a stripling, and continued, though much his senior, his 
unwavering friend .J 

* Aubrey. f Aikin's Life of Selden, p. 161. 

J Johnson's Memoirs of Selden, p. 353. 



82 BIOGRAPHICAL 

It could not be expected that, immersed as he was in 
business and serious studies, he should always be ready 
to receive visitors. When called upon by strangers, 
Aubrey says, "he had a slight stuff or silk kind of 
false carpet to cast over the table where he read and 
his papers lay, so that he needed not to displace his 
books or papers." And we are told by Colomies, that 
when Isaac Vossius was sometime ascending his stair- 
case to pay him a visit, when he was engaged in some 
deep research, Selden would call out to him from the 
top that he was not at leisure for conversation. 

After the death of the Earl of Kent in 1639, Selden 
appears to have been domesticated with his widow both 
at Wrest in Bedfordshire, and White Friars in London. 
Elizabeth, Countess dowager of Kent, was daughter and 
coheir of Gilbert Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and was 
eminent for her piety and virtue. Aubrey tells us that 
Selden "was married to the Countess, but never owned 
the marriage till after her death, upon some law account. 
He never kept any servant peculiar, but my lady's were 
all at his command ; he lived with her in iEdibus Car- 
meliticis (White Friars), which was, before the con- 
flagration, a noble dwelling." 

The same gossiping authority tells us, " he would 
write sometimes, when notions came into his head, to 
preserve them, under his barber's hands. When he 
died his barber said, he had a great mind to know his 
will, for, said he, ' I never knew a wise man make a 
wise will.' " 

When Lady Kent died, in 1651, she appointed Selden 
her executor, bequeathed to him the Friary House in 



PREFACE. 83 

White Friars, and it is thought that he derived from her 
the chief part of the considerable property he possessed, 
which at his death was estimated at 40,000Z. 

He told his intimate friend, Sir Bennet Hoskyns, 
that " he had no body to make his heir, except it were 
a milkmaid, and that such people did not know what to 
do with a great estate."* 

We consequently find that he bequeathed to each of 
his nieces and nephews one hundred pounds, and to 
various other persons small legacies as tokens of his 
regard, and the remainder of his fortune to his four 
executors. These were Lord Chief Justice Hale, Chief 
Justice Vaughan, Rowland Jukes, and Edward Hey- 
wood, Esquires. He left the plate and a diamond hat- 
band, which had belonged to the Earls of Kent, to Mr. 
Grey Longueville, as a heirloom, he being nephew to 
the last Earl. 

It had been his original intention to leave his library 
to the University of Oxford, but having taken umbrage 
at being required to give security for the safe return of 
a manuscript in the Bodleian Library, of which he de- 
sired the loan, he expunged the bequest,f and left the 

* Aubrey ; who adds as a memorandum : " Bishop Grostest 
of Lincoln, told his brother, who asked him to make him a great 
man ; * Brother,' said he, ' if your plough is broken, I'll pay the 
mending of it ; or if an ox is dead, I'll pay for another ; but a 
ploughman I found you, and a ploughman I'll leave you." 

f It must be confessed that he seems to have taken offence 
unreasonably, for it appears that the University had made a 
special regulation in his favour, that he might have any three 
books from the library at a time, upon giving a bond that they 
should be returned within a year. 



84 BIOGRAPHICAL 

whole, with the exception of some Arabic works on 
medicine given to the College of Physicians, to the dis- 
posal of his executors. He desired them " rather to 
part the books among themselves, or otherwise dispose 
of them, for some public use, than put them to any 
common sale," and suggested " some convenient li- 
brary, public, or of some college in one of the Univer- 
sities." 

His executors considering themselves "as the execu- 
tors not of his anger but his will," after selecting some 
of the books, and offering them to the benchers of the 
Inner Temple, as the foundation of a law library, pre- 
sented the remainder together with his museum to the 
University of Oxford, according to their original desti- 
nation. And as the benchers of the Inner Temple de- 
layed to provide a place of deposit for the books, the 
whole collection, comprising more than 8000 volumes, 
were conveyed to Oxford, one of the terms of the gift 
being that they should be for ever kept together, and in 
a distinct body, with the title of, Mr. Selden's Library. 
The Books arrived in September, 1659, and are pre- 
served in a separate apartment of the Bodleian Library. 
In opening some of them, several pairs of spectacles 
were found, which Selden must have put in and forgot- 
ten where he had placed them. 

The marbles had arrived in the previous June, and 
were finally arranged in one of the schools. An in- 
scription in front of the Divinity school, testified the 
gratitude of the academical body for these donations. 

One of his biographers has very truly said, " There 
can scarcely be a less disputable mark of integrity and 



PREFACE. 85 

worthiness in an individual than his succeeding in se- 
curing the ' golden opinions' of parties opposed to each 
other in contending for the same object, and concern- 
ing which object that individual is known by them to 
differ from them both. Now of all contentions, history 
affords uniform testimony that none are so jealous and 
implacable as those in which are involved the religious 
opinions and the temporal pre-eminence of the dis- 
putants. Mingling in such contentions, Selden passed 
his life a prominent actor in them all, and yet so mo- 
derate, consistent, and talented was his course, that 
although occasionally supporting and opposing each, 
the extremes of the conflicting parties looked up to him 
and sought the aid of his abilities."* 

His literary merit was liberally acknowledged by 
those continental scholars best able to appreciate it; 
Grotius, Salmasius Bochart, G. Vossius, Gronovius and 
Daniel Heinsius are a few among the distinguished list 
of his encomiasts, and though his works are probably 
little read at the present day, because the additions he 
made to the stock of learning have been made available 
by more modern writers and compilers, he must ever be 
accounted one of the chief literary ornaments of this 
country, nor has perhaps Europe produced a scholar of 
more profound and varied erudition. f 

His parliamentary character has been thus ably 

* Johnson's Memoirs of Selden, p. 342. 

f " John Selden wrote the History of Friar Bacon in Latin, 
and communicating it to Sir Kenelm Digby to have it printed at 
Paris, he embezzled or lost it." So Mr. Joyner, Antony a Wood 
additions to his Athen. Oxon. MS. 



86 BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 

sketched by an anonymous writer.* " Selden was a 
member of the long parliament, and took an active and 
useful part in many important discussions and transac- 
tions. He appears to hare been regarded somewhat in 
the light of a valuable piece of national property, like a 
museum, or great public library, resorted to, as a mat- 
ter of course, and a matter of right, in all the numer- 
ous cases in which assistance was wanted from any part 
of the whole compass of legal and historical learning. 
He appeared in the national council not so much the 
representative of the contemporary inhabitants of a par- 
ticular city, as of all the people of all past ages ; con- 
cerning whom, and whose institutions, he was deemed 
to know whatever was to be known, and to be able to 
furnish whatever, within so vast a retrospect, was of a 
nature to give light and authority in the decision of 
questions arising in a doubtful and hazardous state of 
the national affairs." 

But, as Mr. Seward says, u after all, the most en- 
dearing part of Selden's character is elegantly touched 
by himself in the choice of his motto :" 

IlfjOt ttclvtoq rrjv eXevOepiav 

Liberty above all things. 

* It appeared in some periodical to which I have lost the re- 
ference. 



The following Commendatory Verses are subjoined, not so 
much for their merit as to afford confirmatory evidence 
of the high Esteem in which Selden was held hy his 
Cotemporaries. 

BEN JONSOST 
To his Honor'd Friend Mr. John Selden, 

Health. 

KNOW to whom I write : Here I am sure, 
Though I be short, I cannot be obscure. 
Less shall I for the art or dressing care 
Since, naked, best Truth and the Graces are. 
Your Booke, my Selden, I have read, and much 
Was trusted, that you thought my judgment such 
To ask it : though, in most of works, it be 
A penance, — where a man may not be free, — 
Rather than Office. When it doth, or may 
Chance, that the Friend's affection proves allay 
Unto the censure. Yours all need doth fly 
Of this so vicious humanity : 
Than which, there is not unto Studio a more 
Pernicious Enemy. We see, before 
A many' of Books, even good judgments wound 
Themselves, through favouring that, is there not found ; 
But I to yours, far from this fault, shall do ; 
Not fly the crime, but the suspicion too : 




COMMENDATORY 

Though I confess (as every muse hath err'd, 

And mine not least) I have too oft preferr'd 

Men past their terms ; and prais'd some names too much, 

But 'twas with purpose to have made them such. 

Since, being deceiv'd, I turn a sharper eye 

Upon myself, and ask to whom, and why, 

And what I write ? and vex it many days 

Before men get a verse, much less a praise ; 

So that my reader is assured, I now 

Mean what I speak, and still will keep that vow. 

Stand forth my object, then. You that have been 

Ever at home, yet have all countries seen ; 

And like a compass, keeping one foot still 

Upon your centre, do your circle fill 

Of general knowledge ; watch'd men, manners too, 

Heard what times past have said, seen what ours do ! 

Which grace shall I make love to first ? your skill 

Or faith in things ? or is't your wealth and will 

T' inform and teach ? or your unwearied pain 

Of gathering? bounty in pouring out again? 

What fables have you vex'd, what truth redeem'd, 

Antiquities search'd, opinions disesteem'd, 

Impostures branded, and authorities urg'd ! 

What blots and errors have you watched and purg'd 

Records and Authors of! how rectified 

Times, manners, customs ! innovations spied ! 

Sought out the fountains, sources, creeks, paths, ways, 

And noted the beginnings and decays ! 

Where is that nominal mark, or real rite, 

Form, act, or ensign, that hath 'scaped your sight ? 

How are traditions there examin'd ! how 

Conjectures retriev'd! and a story now 

And then of times (besides the bare conduct 

Of what it tells us) weav'd in to instruct ! 

I wonder'd at the richness, but am lost, 

To see the workmanship so exceed the cost ! 

To mark the excellent seasoning of your style 

And manly elocution ! not one while 



VERSES. 

With horror rough, then rioting with wit ; 

But to the subject still the colours fit, 

In sharpness of all search, wisdom choice, 

Newness of sense, antiquity of voice ! 

I yield, I yield. The matter of your praise 

Flows in upon me, and I cannot raise 

A bank against it ; nothing but the round 

Large clasp of Nature such a wit can bound. 

Monarch in letters ! 'mongst the Titles shown 

Of others honors, thus enjoy thy own. 

I first salute thee so ; and gratulate 

With that thy style, thy keeping of thy state ; 

In offering this thy work to no great name, 

That would perhaps, have prais'd and thank'd the same, 

But nought beyond. He, thou hast given it to, 

Thy learned chamber-fellow, knows to do 

It true respects : he will not only love, 

Embrace, and cherish ; but he can approve 

And estimate thy pains, as having wrought 

In the same mines of knowledge, and thence bought 

Humanity enough to be a friend, 

And strength to be a champion, and defend 

Thy gift 'gainst envy. how I do count 

Among my comings in, and see it mount, 

The gain of two such friendships ! Hey ward and 

Selden ! two names that so much understand ! 

On whom I could take up, and ne'er abuse 

The credit, that would furnish a tenth muse ! 

But here's no time nor place my wealth to tell, 

You both are modest. So am I. Farewell. 



90 COMMENDATORY 



On the Death of the Learned 
Mr. JOHN SELDENT. 




gO fell the sacred Sybill, when of old 

Inspir'd with more than mortal breast could hold, 
The gazing multitude stood doubtful by 
Whether to call it Death or Extasie : 

She silent lies, and now the Nations find 

No Oracles but the Leaves she left behind. 

Monarch of Time and Arts, who travell'dst o'er 
New worlds of knowledge, undescried before, 
And hast on everlasting columns writ. 
The utmost bounds of Learning and of Wit. 
Had'st thou been more like us, or we like thee, 
We might add something to thy memory. 
Now thy own Tongues must speak thee, and thy praise 
Be from those Monuments thyself did'st raise ; 
And all those Titles* thou did'st once display, 
Must yield thee Titles greater far than they. 

Time which had wings till now, and was not known 
To have a Being but by being gone, 
You did arrest his motion, and have lent 
A way to make him fixed and permanent ; 
Whilst by your labours Ages past appear, 
And all at once we view a Plato's year. 

Actions and Fables were retriev'd by you, 
All that was done, and what was not done too. 
Which in your breast did comprehended lye 
As in the bosom of Eternity ; 

* Titles of Honour. 






VERSES. 91 

You purg'd Records and Authors* from their rust, 
And sifted Pearls out of Rabbinick dust. 
By you the Syrian Godsf do live and grow 
To be Immortal, since you made them so. 
Inscriptions, Medals, StatuesJ look fresh still, 
Taking new brass and marble from your quill ; 
Which so unravels time, that now we do 
Live our own Age, and our Forefathers' too, 
And thus enlarg'd, by your discoveries, can 
Make that an ell, which Nature made a span. 

If then we judge, that to preserve the State 
Of things, is every moment to create, 
The World's thus half your creature, whilst it stands 
Rescued to memory by your learned Hands. 
And unto you, now fearless of decay, 
Times past owe more than Times to come can pay. 

How might you claim your Country's just applause, 
When you stood square and upright as your cause 
In doubtful times, nor ever would forego 
Fair Truth and Right, whose bounds you best did know. 

You in the Tower did stand another Tower, 
Firm to yourself and us, whilst jealous power 
Your very soul imprison'd, that no thought 
By books might enter, nor by pen get out ; 
And stripp'd of all besides, left you confined 
To the one volume of your own vast Mind ; 
There Virtue and strict Honor past the guard, 
Your only friends that could not be debarr'd ; 
And dwelt in your retirement ; arm'd with these 
You stood forth more than Admiral of our Seas ; 
Your Hands enclosed the Wat'ry Plains,§ and thus 
Was no less Fence to them, than they to us ; 

* Eadmerus. Fleta. t De Diis Syris. 

% Marmora Arundeliana. § Mare Clausum. 



92 COMMENDATORY 

Teaching our Ships to conquer, while each fight 
Is but a Comment on those books you write. 

No foul disgraces, nor the worst of things 
Made you like him (whose Anger Homer sings) 
Slack in your Country's Quarrel, who adore, 
Their Champion now, their Martyr heretofore : 
Still with yourself contending, whether you 
Could bravelier suffer, or could bravelier do. 
We ask not now for Ancestors, nor care 
Tho' Selden do no kindred boast, nor Heir, 
Such worth best stands alone, and joys to be 
To th' self at once both Founder and Posterity. 
As when old Xilus who with bounteous flows 
Waters an hundred Nations as he goes, 
Scattering rich Harvests keep his Sacred Head 
Amongst the Clouds still undiscovered. 

Be it now thy Oxford's Pride, that having gone 
Through East and West, no Art, nor Tongue unknown ; 
Laden with Spoils thou hang'st thy Arras up here, 
But set'st thy great Example every where. 

Thus when thy Monument shall itself lie dead, 
And thy own Epitaph* no more be read, 
When all thy Statues shall be worn out so, 
That even Selden should not Selden know ; 
Ages to come shall in thy Virtue share : 
He that dies well makes all the world his Heir. 

R. Bathurst, T. Co. Oxon. 
Decembr. 19, 54. Dryden's Miscellanies, Part iii. 44. 

* His Epitaph, made by himself, in the Temple Church. 




VERSES. 93 



to the profoundly learned and unparalleled 

Antiquary, 

JOHN SELDEST, ESQUIKE. 

HOU living Library, the admiration 
Of this our Borean Clime, who know'st each Nation 
Their Customs trivial, or authentically 
All which thou hast narrated with such skill, 

That more than Camden's all admire thy Quill, 

Scaliger's but a Pupil unto thee, 

(The very Basis of Antiquitie) 

Sufficient characters to expresse all things 

Thou hast, nor need'st thou Metaphorick wings : 

For all the Earth is thine, a Caspian sea 

Thou art, and all Brookes sally into thee, 

But like the Ocean, thou giv'st back far more 

To those clear springs, than thou receiv'st before. 

From thee true living Wisdome doth proceed, 

Thou hast the art of Eloquence indeed. 

What bold presumption it is then in me 

To dedicate my Epigrams to thee, 

Yet so I dare to do, that all may know 

I wish the censure of the rigid'st brow. 

Epigrams, Theological, Philosophical, and Romantick, &c. by 
S. Shepard, Lond. Pr. by G. D. for Thomas Bucknell at the Signe 
of the Golden Lion in Duck Lane. P. 170. 



The following verses by Dr. Gerard Langbaine are placed under 
Selden's portrait. 

Talem se ore tulit, quern gens non barbara qusevis 

Quantovis pretio mallet habere suum. 
Qualis ab ingenio, vel quantus ab arte, loquentur 
Dique ipsi et lapides, si taceant homines. 



TO THE HONOURABLE 

MR. JUSTICE HALES, 

ONE OF THE JUDGES OF THE 
COMMON PLEAS. 

AND TO THE MUCH HONOURED 

Edward Heywood, John Yaugkhan, and 

EoWLAND JeWKS, ESQS.* 

Most worthy Gentlemen, 

*ERE you not Executors to that Person, 
who (while he hVd) was the Glory of 
the Nation, yet I am Confident anything 
of his would find Acceptance with you ; and truly the 

* Mil ward, or the transcriber, has made strange work with the 
names prefixed to this Dedication. " Mr. Justice Hales" is, of 
course, Sir Matthew Hale ; and as he ceased to be one of the 
judges of the Common Pleas on the death of Cromwell in 1658, 
the Table Talk must, therefore, have been prepared for publica- 
tion soon after Selden's death, although it remained in MS. until 
1699, nine years after that of the compiler. " Heywood," should 
be Heyward, Selden's early friend. " Vaughan" was afterwards 
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. 




98 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

Sense aud Xotion here is wholly his, and most of the 
Words. I had the opportunity to hear his Discourse 
twenty Years together ; and lest all those Excellent 
things that usually fell from him might he lost, some 
of them from time to time I faithfully committed to 
Writing, which here digested into this Method,I humhly 
present to your Hands. You will quickly perceive 
them to he his by the familiar Illustrations wherewith 
they are set off, and in which way you know he was so 
happy, that, with a marvellous delight to those that 
heard him, he would presently convey the highest Points 
of Religion, and the most important Affairs of State, 
to an ordinary apprehension. 

In reading be pleased to distinguish Times, and in 
your Fancy carry along with you, the When and the 
Why many of these things were spoken ; this will give 
them the more Life, and the smarter Relish. ? Tis 
possible the Entertainment you find in them, may render 
you the more inclinable to pardon the Presumption of 

Your most Obliged and 

most Humble Servant 

Rl. MlLWAKD. 



TAB LE-T ALK. 



Table -Talk : 

BEING THE 

DISCOURSES 

OF 

yohn Selden^ Efq. 

Being His Senfe of various Matters of 

Weight and high Confequence ; 

relating efpecially to 

RELIGION and STATE. 

Diftingue Tempora. 



LONDON: 

Printed for E. Smith, in the Year 
M DC LXXXIX. 




THE DISCOURSES OF 

JOHN SELDEN, ESQ. 




Abbeys , Priories, 8$c. 

HE unwillingness of the Monks to part 
with their Land, will fall out to be just 
nothing, because they are yielded up to 
the King by a Supreme Hand, (viz.) a 
Parliament. If a King conquer another Country, the 
People are loath to lose their Lands; yet no Divine 
will deny but the King may give them to whom he 
please. If a Parliament make a Law concerning 
Leather, or any other Commodity, you and I, for Ex- 
ample are Parliament-Men ; perhaps in respect to our 
own private Interests, we are against it ; yet the major 
part conclude it; we are then involved, and the Law is 
good. 

2. When the Pounders of Abbeys laid a Curse upon 
those that should take away those Lands, I would fain 
know what Power they had to curse me. 'Tis not the 
Curses that come from the Poor, or from any Body, 



102 DISCOURSES, OR 

that hurt rae, because they come from them, but because 
I do something ill against them that deserves God 
should curse me for it. On the other side, 'tis not a 
Man's blessing me that makes me blessed ; he only 
declares me to be so ; and if I do well I shall be blessed, 
whether any bless me or not. 

3. At the time of Dissolution, they were tender in 
taking from the Abbots and Priors their Lands and 
their Houses, till they surrounded them (as most of 
them did). Indeed the Prior of St. John's* Sir Ri- 
chard Weston, being a stout Man, got into France, 
and stood out a whole Year, at last submitted, and the 
King took in that Priory also, to which the Temple 
belonged, and many other Houses in England. They 
did not then cry no Abbots, no Priors, as we do now, 
No Bishops, no Bishops. 

4. Henry the Fifth put away the Friars, Aliens, 
and seized to himself 100,000?. a Year; and there- 
fore they were not the Protestants only that took away 
Church Lands. 

5. In Queen Elizabeth's time, when all the Abbies 
were pulled down, all good Works defaced, then the 

* St. John's of Jerusalem at Clerkenwell, founded 1 100, endowed 
with the revenues of the English Knights Templars, 1323. The 
Prior ranked as first Baron of England. The last Prior, Sir R. 
Weston, retired on a pension of 1000/. a year, but died of a broken 
heart on Ascension day, 1540; the day the Priory was sup- 
pressed. The Church and the House remained entire during 
Henry the Eighth's reign ; he kept his hunting tents and toils in 
them. But in Edward the Sixth's time the Church was blown 
up with gunpowder, by order of Somerset, and the stones carried 
to build his house in the Strand. 




TABLE-TALK. 103 

Preachers must cry up Justification by Faith, not by 
good Works. 

Articles. 

| HE nine and thirty Articles are much another 
thing in Latin, (in which tongue they were 
made) than they are translated into English. 
They were made at three several Convocations, and 
confirmed by Act of Parliament six or seven times after. 
There is a Secret concerning them : Of late Ministers 
have subscribed to all of them ; but by Act of Parliament 
that confirmed them, they ought only to subscribe to 
those Articles which contain matter of Faith, and the 
Doctrine of the Sacraments, as appears by the first 
Subscriptions.* But Bishop Bancroft (in the Convo- 
cation held in King James's days) he began it, that 
Ministers should subscribe to three things, to the King's 
Supremacy, to the Common Prayer, and to the Thirty- 
nine Articles. Many of them do not contain matter 
of Faith. Is it matter of Faith how the Church should 
be governed ? Whether Infants should be baptized ? 
Whether we have any Property in our Goods ? 6fc. 

Baptism. 

iWAS a good way to persuade Men to be 
christened, to tell them that they had a 
Foulness about them, viz. Original Sin, that 
could not be washed away but by Baptism. 

* See Blackburne's Confessional, page 5, and 368, and Lamb's 
Historical Account of the Thirty-nine Articles. Camb. 1829, 
4to. page 32. 




104 DISCOURSES, OR 

2. The Baptising of Children with us, does only 
prepare a Child against he comes to be a Man, to un- 
derstand what Christianity means. In the Church of 
Rome, it has this Effect, it frees Children from Hell. 
They say they go into Limbus Infantum. It succeeds 
Circumcision, and we are sure the Child understood 
nothing of that at eight Days old; why then may 
not we as reasonably baptise a Child at that Age ? In 
England of late years I ever thought the Parson bap- 
tised his own Fingers rather than the Child. 

3. In the Primitive Times they had God-fathers to 
see the Children brought up in the Christian Keligion, 
because many times, when the Father was a Christian, 
the Mother was not, and sometimes, when the Mother 
was a Christian, the Father was not; and therefore 
they made choice of two or more that were Christians 
to see their Children brought up in that Faith. 

Bastard. 

|IS said the xxni. of Deuteron. 2. [A Bas- 
tard shall not enter into the Congregation 
of the Lord, even to the tenth Generation.'] 
Non ingredietur in Ecclesiam Domini, he shall not 
enter into the Church. The meaning of the Phrase is, 
he shall not marry a Jewish Woman. But upon this 
grossly mistaken, a Bastard at this Day in the Church 
of Rome, without a Dispensation, cannot take Orders : 
the thing haply well enough where 'tis so settled ; but 
that 'tis upon a Mistake, (the Place having no reference 
to the Church,) appears plainly by what follows at 
the third Verse : \_An Ammonite or Moabite shall not 





TABLE-TALK, 105 

enter into the Congregation of the Lord, even to the 
tenth Generation.'] Xow you know with the Jews an 
Ammonite or a Moabite could never he a Priest, because 
their Priests were horn so, not made. 

Bible, Scripture. 

I IS a great Question how we know Scripture 
to be Scripture, whether by the Church, or 
by Man's private Spirit. Let me ask you 
how I know any thing ? how I know this Carpet to be 
green ? First, because somebody told me it was green ; 
that you call the Church in your Way. Then after I 
have been told it is green, when I see that Colour again, 
I know it to be green ; my own eyes tell me it is green ; 
that you call the private Spirit. 

2. The English Translation of the Bible is the best 
Translation in the World, and renders the Sense of the 
Original best, taking in for the English Translation, 
the Bishops' Bible* as well as King James's. The 

* 1. The Bishops' Bible, begun soon after Elizabeth's accession 
to the throne, by Archbishop Parker and eight Bishops, besides 
others. It was published in 1568 with a preface by Parker. 

2. King James's. Begun in 1607, published in 1611 : 47 of 
the most learned men in the nation employed on it. There is no 
book so translated, i.e. so peculiarly translated, considering the 
purpose it was meant for — General reading. 

Many impressions of English Bibles printed at Amsterdam, 
and more at Edinburgh, in Scotland, were daily brought over 
hither and sold here. Little their volumes, and low their prices, 
as being of bad paper, worse print, little margin, yet greater 
than the care of the corrector — many abominable errata being 
passed therein. Take one instance for all. Jerem. iv. 17: 



106 DISCOURSES, OR 

Translation in King James's time took an excellent 
way. That Part of the Bible was given to him who 
was most excellent in such a Tongue, (as the Apocrypha 
to Andrew Downs) ; and then they met together, and 
one read the Translation, the rest holding in their Hands 
some Bible, either of the learned Tongues, or French, 
Spanish, Italian, etc. if they found any Fault, they 
spoke, if not he read on. 

3. There is no Book so translated as the Bible for 
the purpose. If I translate a French Book into English, 
I turn it into English Phrase, not into French English. 
\_Il fait froicT] I say 'tis cold, not, it makes cold; but 
the Bible is rather translated into English Words than 
into English Phrase. The Hebraisms are kept, and 
the Phrase of that Language is kept : As for Example, 
[He uncovered her Shame] which is well enough, so 
long as Scholars have to do with it ; but when it comes 
among the Common People, Lord, what Gear do theyy 
make of it ! 

4. Scrutamini Scripturas. These two Words have 
undone the World. Because Christ spake it to his 
Disciples, therefore we must all, Men, Women and 
Children, read and interpret the Scripture. 

5. Henry the Eighth made a Law, that all Men might 
read the Scripture, except Servants ; but no Woman, 
except Ladies and Gentlewomen, who had Leisure and 



speaking of the whole commonwealth of Judah, instead of " Be- 
cause she hath been rebellious against me, saith the Lord," it is 
printed (Edinb. 1637.) "Because she hath beenreligious against 



TABLE-TALK. 107 

might ask somebody the Meaning. The Law was re- 
pealed in Edward the Sixth's Days. 

6. Lay-men have best interpreted the hard places 
in the Bible, such as Johannes Picus, Scaliger, Grotius, 
JSalmasius, Heinsius, (fee. 

7. If you ask which of Erasmus, Beza, or Grotius 
did best upon the Xew Testament, 'tis an idle Question : 
For they all did well in their Way. Erasmus broke 
down the first Brick, Beza added many things, and 
Grrotius added much to him ; in whom we have either 
something new, or something heightened that was said 
before, and so 'twas necessary to have them all three. 

8. The Text serves only to guess by; we must satisfy 
ourselves fully out of the Authors that lived about those 
times. 

9. In interpreting the Scripture, many do as if a 
Man should see one have ten Pounds, which he reckoned 
by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 : meaning four was but 
four Units, and five iive Units, $°c. and that he had in all 
but ten Pounds : the other that sees him, takes not the 
Figures together as he doth, but picks here and there, 
and thereupon reports, that he hath five Pounds in one 
Bag, and six Pounds in another Bag, and nine Pounds 
in another Bag, fyc, when as in truth he hath but ten 
Pounds in all. So we pick out a Text, here and there, 
to make it serve our turn ; whereas if we take it alto- 
gether, and considered what went before and what fol- 
lowed after, we should find it meant no such tiling. 

10. Make no more Allegories in Scripture than needs 
must. The Fathers were too frequent in them ; they, 
indeed, before they fully understood the literal Sense, 



108 DISCOURSES, OB 

looked out for an Allegory. The Folly whereof you 
may conceive thus : Here at the first sight appears to 
me in my Window a Glass and a Book ; I take it for 
granted 'tis a 'Glass and a Book ; thereupon, I go about 
to tell you what they signify : afterwards upon nearer 
view, they prove no such thing ; one is a Box made 
like a Book, the other is a Picture made like a Glass : 
where's now my Allegory ? 

11. When Men meddle with the literal Text, the 
Question is, where they should stop. In this Case, a 
Man must venture his Discretion, and do his best to 
satisfy himself and others in those Places where he 
doubts ; for although we call the Scripture the Word of 
God (as it is), yet it was writ by a Man, a mercenary 
Man, whose Copy, either might be false, or he might 
make it false. For Example, here were a thousand 
Bibles printed in England with the Text thus, [Thou 
shalt commit Adultery] the Word [not] left out :* 
might not this Text be mended? 

12. The Scripture may have more Senses besides the 
Literal, because God understands all things at once; 

* Archbishop Usher on his way to preach at St. Paul's Cross, 
entered a bookseller's shop and purchased a London edition of 
the Bible, in which, to his astonishment and dismay, he found 
the text he had selected was omitted. This was the occasion of 
the first complaint on the subject, and inducing further attention, 
the King's printers, in 1632, were justly fined 3000/. for omitting 
the word " not " in the seventh commandment. During the reign 
of the Parliament a large impression of the Bible was suppressed 
on account of its errors and corruptions, many of which were the 
results of design as well as of negligence. The errors in two of 
the editions actually amounted respectively to 3600 and 6000. 
Johnson's Memoirs of Selden. 



TABLE-TALK. 109 

but a Man's Writing has but one true Sense, which is 
that which the Author meant when he writ it. 

13. When you meet with several Beadings of the 
Text, take heed you admit nothing against the Tenets 
of your Church ; but do as if you were going over a 
Bridge ; be sure you hold fast by the Kail, and then 
you may dance here and there as you please ; be sure 
you keep to what is settled, and then you may flourish 
upon your various Lections. 

14. The Apocrypha is bound with the Bibles of all 
Churches that have been hitherto. Why should we 
leave it out ? The Church of Rome has her Apocry- 
pha (viz.) Susanna and Bell and the Dragon, which 
she does not esteem equally with the rest of those 
Books that we call Apocrypha* 



Bishops before the Parliament. 

BISHOP as a Bishop, had never any Ec- 
clesiastical Jurisdiction ; for as soon as he 
was Electus Conjirmatus, that is, after the 
three Proclamations in Bow- Church, he might exercise 
Jurisdiction before he was consecrated ; yet f till then 
he was no Bishop, neither could he give Orders. Be- 



* Apocrypha which is extant in Greek only, except the 4th 
book of Esdras in Latin : 

The Apocrypha was one great stumbling-block to the Pres- 
byterians. They looked upon its introduction into the Liturgy 
to be papistical. 

■f Original Edition, not. 




110 DISCOURSES, OR 

sides, Suffragans were Bishops, and they never claimed 
any Jurisdiction. 

2. Anciently the Noblemen lay within the City for 
Safety and Security. The Bishops' Houses were by 
the Water side, because they were held sacred Persons 
which nobody would hurt. 

3. There was some sense for Commendams at first : 
when there was a Living void, and never a Clerk to 
serve it, the Bishops were to keep it till they found a fit 
Man ; but now 'tis a Trick for the Bishop to keep it for 
himself. 

4. For a Bishop to preach, 'tis to do other Folks' 
Office, as if the Steward of the House should execute 
the Porter's or the Cook's Place. 'Tis his Business to 
see that they and all other about the House perform 
their Duties. 

5. That which is thought to have done the Bishops 
hurt, is their going about to bring Men to a blind Obe- 
dience, imposing things upon them [though perhaps 
small and well enough], without preparing them, and 
insinuating into their Reasons and Fancies. Every 
Man loves to know his Commander. I wear those 
Gloves ; but perhaps if an Alderman should command 
me, I should think much to do it : What has he to do 
with me ? Or if he has, peradventure I do not know it. 
This jumping upon things at first Dash will destroy all. 
To keep up Friendship, there must be little Addresses 
and Applications ; whereas Bluntness spoils it quickly : 
To keep up the Hierarchy, there must be little Appli- 
cations made to Men, they must be brought on by little 
and little. So in the Primitive Times the Power was 



TABLE-TALK. Ill 

gained, and so it must be continued. Scaliger said of 
Erasmus ; Si minor esse voluerit*' major fuisset. So 
we may say of the Bishops, Si minores esse voluerint, 
major es fuissent. 

6. The Bishops were too hasty, else with a discreet 
slowness they might have had what they aimed at. 
The old Story of the Fellow, that told the Gentleman, 
he might get to such a Place if he did not ride too fast, 
would have fitted their turn. 

7. For a Bishop to cite an old Canon to strengthen 
his new Articles, is as if a Lawyer should plead an old 
Statute that has been repealed God knows how long. 



Bishops in the Parliament. 

|ISH0PS have the same Eight to sit in Par- 
liament as the best Earls and Barons ;f that 
is, those that were made by Writ. If you 
ask one of them [Arundel, Oxford, Northumberland^ 



* Original Edition, Voluit, 

f A resolution had passed the House of Commons in 1640, and 
a Bill was founded upon it, declaring that no Bishop or other 
Clergyman ought to be a privy counsellor, in the commission of 
the peace, or to have any judicial power in a civil court, it being 
a hindrance to his spiritual functions and injurious to the Com- 
monwealth. This was probably in imitation of the resolution of 
the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, who, in their Act 
of Sessions, 17th August, 1639, had propounded that " The civil 
power and places of Kirkmen, their Sitting in Session, Councell, 
and Exchecquer, their Riding, Sitting, and voting in Parliament, 
and their sitting in the Bench as Justices of Peace, are incom- 
patible with their Spiritual Sanction, lifting them up above their 




112 DISCOURSES, OR 

why they sit in the House, they can only say, their 
Father sate there before them, and their Grandfather 
before him, Sfc. And so say the Bishops ; he that was 
a Bishop of this Place before me sate in the House, 
and he that was a Bishop before him, Sfc. Indeed 
your later Earls and Barons have it expressed in their 
Patents, that they shall be called to the Parliament • 
Objection, but the Lords sit there by Blood, the Bishops 
not. Answer, ? Tis true, they sit not there both the 
same way, yet that takes not away the Bishops' Bight. 
If I am a Parson of a Parish, I have as much Bight to 
my Glebe and Tithe, as you have to your Land which 
your Ancestors have had in that Parish Eight Hundred 
Years. 

2. The Bishops were not Barons, because they had 
Baronies annexed to their Bishoprics ; for few of them 

Brethren in worldly pomp, and do tend to the hinderance of the 
Ministrie." 

The King insisted upon their right from custom, which he 
was bound to maintain as one of the fundamental institutions 
of the kingdom, and we see that with this opinion Selden con- 
curred. 

Mr. Bagshaw who was reader of the Middle Temple, lecturing 
during the Lent vacation of 1640 upon the statute of the 25th, 
Edward III. inferred from its enactments, that Bishops, as spiri- 
tual lords, have no right to sit in Parliament. It is true he was 
silenced by the Government ; but the support which he met with, 
and the very fact of his lecturing on the topic before such an 
audience, is testimony of that opinion not being unpalatable or 
unfavoured. — Johnson's Memoirs of Selden. 

Six Bishoprics were created by King Henry VIII. ; Bristol, 
Gloucester, Peterborough, Chester, Oxford and Westminster; but 
the last had only one Bishop, after whom it was again annexed 
to the see of London. 



TABLE-TALK, 113 

had so, unless the old ones, Canterbury , Winchester, 
Durham, etc. ; the new erected we are sure had none, 
as Gloucester, Peterborough, etc. ; besides few of the 
Temporal Lords had any Baronies. But they are 
Barons, because they are called by Writ to the Parlia- 
ment, and Bishops were in the Parliament ever since 
there was any mention, or sign of a Parliament in Eng- 
land, 

3. Bishops may be judged by the Peers, though in 
time of Popery it never happened, because they pre- 
tended they were not obnoxious to a Secular Court; 
but their way was to cry, Ego sum Frater Domini 
Papce, I am Brother to my Lord the Pope, and there- 
fore take not myself to be judged by you : in this Case 
they impanelled a Middlesex Jury, and dispatched the 
Business. 

4. Whether may Bishops be present in Cases of 
Blood ? Answ, That they had a Bight to give Votes 
appears by this, always when they did go out, they left 
a Proxy; and in the time of the Abbots, one Man had 
10, 20 or 30 Voices. In Richard the Second's time, 
there was a Protestation against the Canons, by which 
they were forbidden to be present in case of Blood.* 

* In Kichard the Second's time there was a protestation 
against the Canons. They were forbidden by Canon Law only, 
and unless the King's most royal assent might be had unto them, 
&c. 

Canons f 07" Blood, i.e. forbidding the Bishops to vote in cases 
of blood. 

Canons of irregul, of Blood, i.e. against their voting in cases 
of blood, &c. 

H 



1U DISCOURSES, OR 

The Statute of 25th of Henry the Eighth may go a 
great way in this Business. The Clergy were forbid- 
den to use or cite any Canon, tyc. ; but in the latter end 
of the Statute, there was a Clause, that such Canons 
that were in usage in this Kingdom, should be in force 
till the thirty- two Commissioners appointed should make 
others, provided they were not contrary to the King's 
Supremacy. JSTow the Question will be, whether these 
Canons for Blood were in use in this Kingdom or no ? 
The contrary whereof may appear by many Precedents 
in Richard III. and Henry VII. and the beginning of 
Henry VIII. in which time there were more attainted 
than since, or scarce before. The Canons of Irregu- 
larity of Blood were never receiv'd in England, but 
upon pleasure. If a Lay-Lord was attainted, the 
Bishops assented to his Condemning, and were always 
present at the passing of the Bill of Attainder : But if 
a Spiritual Lord, they went out, as if they car'd not 
whose Head was cut off, so none of their own. In 
those Days, the Bishops being of great Houses, were 
often entangled with the Lords in Matters of Treason. 
But when d'ye hear of a Bishop a Traitor now ? 

5. You would not have Bishops meddle with Tem- 
poral Affairs. Think who you are that say it. If a 
Papist, they do in your Church ; if an English Pro- 
testant, they do among you ; if a Presbyterian, where 
you have no Bishops, you mean your Presbyterian Lay- 
Elders should meddle with Temporal Affairs as well as 
Spiritual. Besides, all Jurisdiction is Temporal ; and 
in no Church but they have some Jurisdiction or 
other. The Question then will be reduced to Magis 



TABLE-TALK. 115 

and Minus ; They meddle more in one Church than in 
another. 

6. Objection. Bishops give not their Votes by Blood 
in Parliament, but by an Office annexed to them, which 
being taken away they cease to vote ; therefore there is 
not the same reason for them as for Temporal Lords. 
Answ. We do not pretend they have that Power the 
same way ; but they have a Eight : He that has an 
Office in Westminster- Hall for his Life, the Office is 
as much his as his land is his that hath Land by In- 
heritance. 

7. Whether had the inferior Clergy ever any thing 
to do in the Parliament ? Answ. No ; no otherwise 
than thus : There were certain of the Clergy that used 
to assemble near the Parliament, with whom the Bishops, 
upon occasion might consult (but there were none of 
the Convocation, as 'twas afterwards settled,) viz. the 
Dean, the Arch-Deacon, one for the Chapter, and two 
for the Diocese, but it happened by continuance of time 
(to save Charges and Trouble) their Voices, and the 
Consent of the whole Clergy, were involved in the 
Bishops ; and at this Day, the Bishops' Writs run, to 
bring all these to the Parliament; but the Bishops 
themselves stand for all. 

8. Bishops were formerly one of these two Condi- 
tions ; either Men bred Canonists and Civilians, sent up 
and down Ambassadors to Rome and other Parts, and 
so by their Merit came to that Greatness ; or else great 
Noblemen's Sons, Brothers, and Nephews, and so born 
to govern the State : Now they are of a low Condition, 
their Education nothing of that way: he gets a Living, 



116 DISCOURSES, OB 

and then a greater Living, and then a greater than 
that, and so comes to govern. 

9. Bishops are now unfit to Govern, because of their 
Learning : they are bred up in another Law; they run 
to the Text for something done amongst the Jews that 
nothing concerns England ; 'tis just as if a Man would 
have a Kettle, and he would not go to our Brazier to 
have it made, as they make Kettles, but he would have 
it made as Hiram made his Brass-work, who wrought 
in Solomon's Temple. 

10. To take away Bishops' Votes, is but the begin- 
ning to take them away; for then they can be no longer 
useful to the King or State. 'Tis but like the little 
Wimble, to let in the greater Auger. Objection. But 
they are but for their Life, and that makes them always 
go for the King as he will have them. Answer. This 
is against a double Charity ; for you must always sup- 
pose a bad King and bad Bishops. Then again, whe- 
ther will a Man be sooner content himself should be 
made a Slave, or his Son after him ? When we talk of 
our Children we mean ourselves. Besides, they that 
have Posterity are more obliged to the King than they 
that are only for themselves, in all the reason in the 
World. 

11. How shall the Clergy be in the Parliament, if 
the Bishops are taken away ? Answer. By the Laity ; 
because the Bishops, in whom the rest of the Clergy are 
included, assent* to the taking away their own Votes, 
by being involv'd in the major Part of the House. This 
follows naturally. 

* Original Edition, are sent. 




TABLE-TALK. 117 

12. The Bishops being put out of the House, whom 
will they lay the fault upon now ? When the Dog is 
beat out of the Boom, where will they lay the stink ? 

Bishops out of the Parliament. 

^N" the beginning Bishops and Presbyters 
were alike, like the Gentlemen in the Coun- 
try, whereof one is made Deputy-Lieutenant, 
and another Justice of Peace ; so one is made a Bishop, 
another a Dean ; and that kind of Government by Arch- 
bishops and Bishops no doubt came in, in imitation of 
the Temporal Government, not Jure Divino. In time 
of the 'Roman Empire, where they had a Legatus, there 
they placed an Archbishop ; where they had a Rector, 
there a Bishop, that every one might be instructed in 
Christianity, which now they had received into the 
Empire. 

2. They that speak ingenuously of Bishops and 
Presbyters, say, that a Bishop is a great Presbyter, 
and, during the time of his being Bishop, above a Pres- 
byter ; as your President of the College of Physicians, 
is above the rest, yet he himself is no more than a 
Doctor of Physic. 

3. The Words [Bishop and Presbyter] are promis- 
cuously used; that is confessed by all;* and though 



* Wyckliffe in his Trialogus says : — " I boldly affirm, that in 
the time of Paul presbyter and bishop were names of the same 
office. This appears from the first chapter of the Epistle to 
Titus, and confirmed by that profound theologian Jerome." — See 
Dr, Vaughan's Life of Wyckliffe, vol. ii. p. 275. 



118 DISCOURSES, OB 

the "Word [Bishop] be in Timothy and Titus, jet that 
will not prove the Bishops ought to have a Jurisdiction 
over the Presbyter, though Timothy or Titus had by 
the Order that was given them. Somebody must take 
care of the rest ; and that Jurisdiction was but to Ex- 
communicate, and that was but to tell them they should 
come no more into their Company. Or grant they did 
make Canons one for another, before they came to be 
in the State, does it follow they must do so when the 
State has received them into it ? What if Timothy had 
power in Ephesus, and Titus in Crete, over the Pres- 
byters ? Does it follow therefore the Bishops must have 
the same in England? Must we be governed like Ephe- 
sus and Crete ? 

4. However some of the Bishops pretend to be Jure 
Divino, yet the Practice of the Kingdom had ever been 
otherwise ; for whatever Bishops do otherwise than the 
Law permits, Westminster Hall can control, or send 
them to absolve, Sfc. 

5. He that goes about to prove Bishops Jure Di- 
vino;* does as a Man that having a Sword, shall strike 
it against an Anvil : if he strike it awhile there, he may 
peradventure loosen it, tho' it be never so well riveted, 



* Who would not have laughed to hear a Presbyterian ob- 
serve, from the first chapter of Genesis, first verse, that whilst 
Moses relates what God made, he speaks nothing of Bishops ; by 
which it was evident that Bishops were not of divine institution. 
A conceit as ridiculous as that of a Priest, who finding Maria 
spoken of, signifying Seas, did brag that he had found the Virgin 
Mary named in the Old Testament. 

Religio Stoici, 12°, Edinb. 1663, p. 77. 



TABLE-TALK. 119 

'twill serve to strike another Sword, or cut Flesh, hut 
not against an Anvil. 

6. If you should say you hold your Land hy Moses! 
or God's Law, and would try it hy that, you may per- 
haps lose, but hy the Law of the Kingdom you are sure 
of it. So may the Bishops hy this Plea of Jure Divino 
lose all. The Pope had as good a Title by the Law 
of England as could be had, had he not left that, and 
claimed by Power from God. 

7. There is no Government enjoin'd* by Example, 
but by Precept; it does not follow we must have Bishops 
still, because we have had them so long. They are 
equally mad who say Bishops are so Jure Divino that 
they must be continued, and they who say they are so 
Antichristian that they must be put away. All is as 
the State pleases. 

8. To have no Ministers, but Presbyters, 'tis as if 
in the Temporal State they should have no Officers but 
Constables. Bishops do best stand with Monarchy ; that 
as amongst the Laity, you have Dukes, Lords, Lieu- 
tenants, Judges, Sfc, to send down the King's Pleasure 
to his Subjects, so you have Bishops to govern the in- 
ferior Clergy. These upon occasion may address them- 
selves to the King, otherwise every Parson f of the 
Parish must come, and run up to the Court. 

9. The Protestants have no Bishops in France, be- 
cause they live in a Catholic Country, and they will 

* There is no Government enjoined, &c, i. e. by example of 
other Governments but by that which is judged best for our 
own. 

f Orig. Edit. Person, the old. orthography of Parson. 



120 DISCOURSES, OR 

not have Catholic Bishops ; therefore they must govern 
themselves as well as they may. 

10. What is that to the purpose, to what End were 
Bishops' Lands given to them at first?* You must 
look to the Law and Custom of the Place. What is 
that to any Temporal Lord's Estate, how Lands were 
first divided, or how in William the Conqueror's Days ? 
And if Men at first were juggled out of their Estates, 
yet they are rightly their Successors. If my Father 
cheat a Man, and he consent to it, the Inheritance is 
rightly mine. 

11. If there he no Bishops, there must be something 
else which has the Power of Bishops, though it be in 
many ; and then had you not as good keep them ?f If 
you will have no Half- Crowns, but only single Pence, 
yet Thirty single Pence are half a Crown ; and then 
had you not as good keep both ? But the Bishops have 
done ill. 'Twas the Men, not the Function : As if you 
should say, you would have no more Half- Crowns, be- 
cause they were stolen, when the Truth is, they were 
not stolen because they were Half- Crowns, but because 
they were Money, and light in a Thief s hand. 

12. They that would pull down the Bishops and erect 

* Bishops' Lands. Ordered by the Parliament to be sold for 
the use of the Commonwealth, Nov. 16, 1646. 

f Dr. Aikin has observed that Selden steered a middle course, 
as one who was an enemy to the usurpations of Ecclesiastical 
power, yet was friendly to the discipline of the Church of England. 
He certainly strove in the House of Commons to prevent the 
abolition of Episcopacy. It is evident that he disliked the Pres- 
byterians, but it would be difficult to say what church would 
have had his entire approbation. 



TABLE-TALK. 121 

a new way of Government, do as he that pulls down 
an old House, and builds another in another Fashion. 
There's a great deal of do, and a great deal of trouble : 
the old rubbish must be carried away, and new mate- 
rials must be brought: Workmen must be provided, 
and perhaps the old one would have serv'd as well. 

13. If the Parliament and Presbyterian Party 
should dispute, who should be Judge? Indeed in the 
beginning of Queen Elizabeth, there was such a dif- 
ference, between the Protestants and Papists, and Sir 
Nicholas Bacon, Lord Chancellor,* was appointed to 
be Judge ; but the Conclusion was, the stronger Party 
carried it: For so Religion was brought into thesef 
Kingdoms, so it has been continued, and so it may be 
cast out, when the State pleases. 

14. 'Twill be great Discouragement to Scholars, that 
Bishops should be put down : for now the Father can 
say to his Son, and the Tutor to his Pupil, Study hard, 
and you shall have Vocem et Sedem in Parliamento ; 
then it must be, Study hard, and you shall have a 
hundred a year, if you please your Parish. Objection. 
But they that enter into the Ministry for Preferment, 
are like Judas that look'd after the Bag. Answer. It 
may be so, if they turn Scholars at Judas 9 s Age ; but 
what Arguments will they use to persuade them to fol- 
low their Books while they are young ? 



* Sir Nicholas Bacon was never Chancellor. He was Keeper 
of the Great Seal. 

f The word these is omitted in Orig. Ed. 




122 DISCOURSES, OB 

Books, Authors. 

I HE giving a Bookseller his Price for his 
Boohs has this Advantage ; he that will 
do so, shall have the refusal of whatsoever 
comes to his hand, and so by that means get many 
things, which otherwise he never should have seen. So 
'tis in giving a Bawd her Price. 

2. In buying Books or other Commodities, 'tis not 
always the best way to bid half so much as the seller 
asks : witness the Country fellow that went to buy two 
[shove-] groat Shillings,* they ask'd him three Shil- 
lings, and he bade them Eighteen pence. 

3. They counted the Price of the Books {Acts xix. 
19.) and found Fifty Thousand Pieces of Silver ; that is 
so many Sestertii, or so many Three -half-pence of our 
Money, about Three Hundred pound Sterling. 

4. Popish Books teach and inform ; what we know 
we know much out of them. The Fathers, Church 



* The word shove is wanting in the Original Edition, but one 
MS. copy has it shore, an evident mistake. 

The broad, flat, thin shillings of Edward VI. were anciently 
much in request for the game of shove-groat or shuffle board. They 
were placed on the edge of the table or board projecting over it, 
and struck with the palm of the hand to certain chalk marks pro- 
gressively numbered. The game was originally played with sil- 
ver groats, then nearly as large as modern shillings. The reader 
will recollect Falstaff's " Quoit him down, Bardolph, like a shove- 
groat Shilling" Master Slender's Edward shovel boards cost him 
" two shillings and two-pence a piece." See Douce's Illustrations 
of Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 454, and Nares's Glossary in v. u Shove- 
groat." 



TABLE-TALK. 123 

Story, School-men, all may pass for Popish Books ; and 
if you take away them, what Learning will you leave ? 
Besides who must be Judge? The Customer or the 
Waiter? If he disallows a Book, it must not he brought 
into the Kingdom ;* then Lord have mercy upon all 
Scholars. These Puritan Preachers, if they have any 
things good, they have it out of Popish Books, tho' 
they will not acknowledge it, for fear of displeasing the 
People. He is a poor Divine that cannot sever the 
good from the bad. 

5. 'Tis good to have Translations, because they serve 
as a Comment, so far as the Judgement of the Man 
goes. 

6. In answering a Book, 'tis best to be short ; other- 
wise he that I write against will suspect I intend to 
weary him, not to satisfy him. Besides in being long 
I shall give my Adversary a huge advantage ; some- 
where or other he will pick a hole. 

7. In quoting of Books, quote such Authors as are 
usually read ; others you may read for your own Satis- 
faction, but not name them.f 



* Customer, i. e. The officer of the Customs. The importa- 
tion of Popish Books was contraband ; it was one of the charges 
against Laud that he had suffered the customs to let pass many 
Popish Books. 

f We are told in the Walpoliana that Bentley would not even 
allow that a book was worthy to be read that could not be quoted. 
" Having found his son reading a novel, he said, Why read a 
book that you cannot quote ? " Selden's own conduct was at vari- 
ance with his dictum, for in his own works he freely quotes from 
all sources, many of them the most recondite, and certainly not 
such as " are usually read." 



124 DISCOURSES, OR 

8. Quoting of Authors is most for matter of Fact, 
and then I cite* them as I would produce a Witness ; 
sometimes for a free Expression ; and then I give the 
Author his due, and gain myself praise by reading 
him. 

9. To quote a Modern Dutchman, where I may use 
a Classic Author, is as if I were to justify my Reputa- 
tion, and I neglect all Persons of Note and Quality that 
know me, and bring the Testimonial of the Scullion in 
the Kitchen. 

Canon Law. 

YF I would study the Canon Law as it is used 
in England, I must study the Heads here 
in use, then go to the Practisers in those 
Courts where that Law is practised, and know their 
Customs. So for all the Study in the World. 

Ceremony. 

;EEEMONY keeps up all things : 'Tis like 
a Penny- Glass to a rich Spirit, or some ex- 
cellent Water ; without it the Water were 
spilt, the Spirit lost. 

2. Of all people Ladies have no reason to cry down 
Ceremony, for they take themselves slighted without it. 
And were they not used with Ceremony, with Compli- 
ments and Addresses, with Legs and Kissing of Hands, 

* The first and second editions have write. Evidently an error. 









TABLE-TALK. 125 

the j were the pitifullest Creatures in the World. But 
yet methinks to kiss their Hands after their Lips, as 
some do, is like little Boys, that after they eat the 
Apple, fall to the Paring out of a Love they have to 
the Apple. 

Chancellor. 

I HE Bishop is not to sit with a Chancellor in 
his Court, (as being a thing either beneath 
him or beside him,) no more than the King 
is to sit in the King's-Bench when he has made a Lord- 
Chief- Justice. 

2. The Chancellor govern'd in the Church, who was 
a Lay-man:* and therefore 'tis false which they charge 
the Bishops with, that they challenge sole Jurisdiction ; 
for the Bishop can no more put out the Chancellor 
than the Chancellor the Bishop. They were many of 
them made Chancellors for their Lives ; and he is the 
fittest Man to govern, because Divinity so overwhelms 
the rest. 

Changing Sides. 

i IS the Trial of a Man to see if he will change 
his side ; and if he be so weak as to change 
once, he will change again. Your Country 
Fellows have a way to try if a Man be weak in the 

* The Chancellors of Dioceses are still several of the"m laymen, 
generally civilians. It is probable that, as Dr. Irving suggests, 
we should read they " were many of them made chancellors for 
their knowledge of the laws." 




126 DISCOURSES, OB 

Hams, by coming behind him and giving him a Blow 
unawares ; if he bend once, he will bend again. 

2. The Lords that fall from the King after they 
have got Estates by base Flattery at Court, and now 
pretend Conscience,- do as a Vintner, that when he first 
sets up, you i may bring your Wench to his House, and 
do your things there ; but when he grows Eich, he 
turns conscientious, and will sell no Wine upon the 
Sabbath-clay. 

3. Colonel Goring* serving first the one side and 
then the other, did like a good Miller that knows how 
to grind which way soever the Wind sits. 

4. After Luther had made a Combustion in Ger- 
many about Religion, he was sent to by the Pope, to 
be taken off, and offer'd any Preferment in the Church, 
that he would make choice of : Luther answered, if he 
had offer'd half as much at first, he would have accepted 
it; but now he had gone so far, he could not come 
back. In Truth he had made himself a greater thing 
than they could make him ; the German Princes courted 
him, he was become the Author of a Sect ever after to 
be called Lutherans. So have our Preachers done that 
are against the Bishops ; they have made themselves 
greater with the people than they can be made the 
other way ; and therefore there is the less probabilityt 
in bringing them off. 

* Col. Goring. He was first sworn to the King's secret 
orders ; confessed to the House ; was entrusted by them with 
Portsmouth, which he surrendered to Charles in 1642, &c. " He 
would (says Clarendon) without hesitation have broken any trust 
or done any act of treachery, to have satisfied any ordinary pas- 
sion or appetite." 

t The Original Edition misprints this, " charity probably." 




TABLE-TALK, 127 



Charity* 

HABIT Y to Strangers is enjoin'd in the 
Text. By Strangers is there understood 
those that are not of our own Kin, Stran- 
gers to your Blood ; not those you cannot tell whence 
they come ; that is, be charitable to your Neighbours 
whom you know to be honest poor People. 



Christmas. 

iHBISTMAS succeeds the Saturnalia, the 
same time, the same number of Holy-days ; 
then the Master waited upon the Servant 
like the Lord of Misrule. 

2. Our Meats and our Sports, much of them, have 
Belation to Church-works. The Coffin of our Christ- 
mas-Pies, in shape long, is in Imitation of the Cratch ; 
our choosing Kings and Queens on Twelfth-Night, 
hath reference to the three Kings. So likewise our 
eating of Fritters, whipping of Tops, roasting of Her- 
rings, Jack of Lents,f fyc, they were all in Imitation 
of Church-works, Emblems of Martyrdom. Our Tan- 
sies at Easter have reference to the bitter Herbs; though, 

* The word Charity, placed as above noted in the text of the 
Original Edition, should have been the head title of this Article, 
which is erroneously blended with the preceding, to which it has 
no relation. 

f Jack o' Lents, i. e. Puppets to be pelted at like shrove-cocks 
in Lent. 





128 DISCOURSES, OB 

at the same time 'twas always the Fashion for a Man 
to have a Gammon of Bacon to show himself to be no 
Jew. 

Christians. 

lN the High- Church of Jerusalem, the Chris- 
tians were hut another Sect of Jews, that 
did believe the Messias was come. To be 
called, was nothing else, but to become a Christian, to 
have the Xame of a Christian, it being their own Lan- 
guage ; for amongst the Jews, when they made a Doc- 
tor of Law, 'twas said he was called. 

2. The Turks tell their People of a Heaven where 
there is sensible Pleasure, but of a Hell where they 
shall suffer they don't know what. The Christians 
quite invert this Order ; they tell us of a Hell where 
we shall feel sensible Pain, but of a Heaven where we 
shall enjoy we can't tell what. 

3. Why did the Heathens object to the Christians, 
that they worship an Ass's Head ?* You must know, 
that to a Heathen, a Jew and a Christian were all one ;f 
that they regarded him not, so he was not one of them. 
Xow that of the Ass's Head might proceed from such a 

* V. Minucius Felix in Octavio, cap. 28, (ubi hagc Caecilii 
verba laudatur : Audire te dicis caput asini rem nobis esse di- 
vinam ? Quis tarn stultus, ut hac colat ? quis stultior, ut hoc 
credat. Conf. Martialis, II. 95 ; Tacitus, Hist. lib. v. § 4.), and 
Ruperti's Commentary, where the subject is discussed and refer- 
ences given to everything bearing on the subject. 

f This opinion is founded on the passage in Suetonius. Claudius, 
<S 25. But see Van Dale de Oraculis Veterum Ethnicorum, p. 604. 
Gibbon, vol. ii. p. 401. Watson's Apology, p. 88. 




TABLE-TALK. 129 

Mistake as this ; by the Jews 9 Law, all the Firstlings of 
Cattle were to be offered to God, except a young Ass, 
which was to be redeemed. A Heathen being present, 
and seeing young Calves and young Lambs kill'd at 
their Sacrifices, only young Asses redeem'd, might very 
well think they had that silly Beast in some high Esti- 
mation, and thence might imagine they worshipped it 
as a God. 

Church. 

|EKET0F0BE the Kingdom let the Church 
alone, let them do what they would, because 
they had something else to think of, (viz.) 
Wars ; but now in time of Peace, we begin to examine 
all things, will have nothing but what we like, grow 
dainty and wanton ; just as in a Family when the Heir 
uses to go a hunting ; he never considers how his Meal 
is drest, takes a bit, and away ; but when he stays within, 
then he grows curious ; he does not like this, nor he 
does not like that ; he will have his Meat drest his own 
way, or peradventure he will dress it himself. 

2. It hath ever been the game* of the Church when 
the King will let the Church have no Power to cry 
down the King and cry up the Church : But when the 
Church can make use of the King's Power, then to 
bring all under the King's Prerogative. The Catholics 
of England go one way, and the Court- Clergy another. 

3. A glorious Church is like a magnificent Feast; 
there is all the Variety that may be, but every one 

* Original Edition, gain. 

I 



130 DISCOURSES, OR 

chooses out a Dish or two that he likes, and lets the 
rest alone : how glorious soever the Church is, every 
one chooses out of it his own Keligion, hy which he 
governs himself, and lets the rest alone. 

4. The Laws of the Church are most favourahle to 
the Church, because they were the Church's own making; 
as the Heralds are the best Gentlemen, because they 
make their own Pedigree. 

5. There is a Question about that Article, concerning 
the Power of the Church, whether these Words [of 
having Power in Controversies of Faith] * were not 
stolen in ; but 'tis most certain they were in the Book 
of Articles that was confirmed, though in some Editions 
they have been left out : But the Article before tells 
you, who the Church is, not the Clergy, but Coetus 
fidelium. 

Church of Rome. 

1EFOEE a Juggler's Tricks are discover'd 
we admire him, and give him Money, but 
afterwards we care not for them ; so 'twas 
before the Discovery of the Juggling of the Church of 
Home. 

2. Catholics say, we out of our Charity believe they 
of the Church of Rome may be saved, but they do not 
believe so of us ; therefore their Church is better ac- 



* " Of having power in controversies" Article 20th. In- 
serted, says Fuller, in the original edition, 1562-3, 1593, 1605, 
1612, omitted edition 1571, when first ratified by act of Parlia- 
ment. 




TABLE-TALK, 131 

cording to ourselves. First, some of them no doubt, 
believe as well of us, as we do of them, but they must 
not say so. Besides, is that an Argument their Church 
is better than ours because it has less Charity ? 

3. One of the Church of Rome will not come to our 
Prayers ; does that argue he doth not like them ? I 
would fain see a Catholic leave his Dinner, because a 
Nobleman's Chaplain says Grace. Nor haply would 
he leave the Prayers of the Church, if going to Church 
were not made a Mark of Distinction between a Pro- 
testant and a Papist. 

Churches. 

\ HE Way coming into our great Churches, 
was anciently at the West-Door, that Men 
might see the Altar, and all the Church 
before them ; the other Doors were but Posterns.* 



* I received letters lately out of France touching this point — 
Whether we find that any Churches in the elder times of Chris- 
tianity were with the doors, or fronts eastward or no ? because 
of that in Sidonius : — Arce Frontis ortum spectat sequinoctialem, 
lib. 2. Ep. 10. and other like. I beseech your Lordship to let 
me know what you think hereof. 

My Titles of Honour are in the press, and new written, but I 
hear it shall be staid ; if not I shall salute you with one as soon 
as it is done. 

Selden to Usher, March 24, 1621. 

Usher to Selden. 

Touching that which you move concerning the situation of 
Churches in the elder times of Christianity, Walafridus Strabo 
(De Reb. Ecclesiast. c. 4.) telleth us : Non magnopere curabunt 





132 DISCOURSES, OR 

City. 

^HAT makes a City; whether a Bishopric 
or any of that nature ? 

Answer. 'Tis according to the first 
Charter which made them a Corporation. If they are 
incorporated by Xame of Civitas, they are a City ; if 
by the name of Bur gum, then they are a Borough. 

2. The Lord Mayor of London by their first Charter, 
was to be presented to the King ; in his absence, to the 
Lord Chief Justiciary of England, afterwards to the 
Lord Chancellor, now to the Barons of the Exchequer ; 
but still there was a Reservation, that for then Honour 
they should come once a Year to the King, as they do 
still. 

illius temporis justi, quam in partem orationis loca converterent. 
Yet his conclusion is, Sed tamen usus frequentior, et rationi vici- 
nior habet, in Orientem orantes converti, et pluralitatem maximam 
Ecclesiarum eo tenore constitui. Which does further also appear 
by the testimony of Paulinus, Bishop of Xola, in his 12th epistle 
to Severus: Prospectus vero BasilicaB non, ut usitatior mos, 
Orientem spectat. And particularly with us here in Ireland, 
Josceline, in the Life of St. Patrick, observeth, that a Church 
was built by him in Sabul, hard by Downe (in Ulster), "Ab 
aquilonali parte versus meridianum plagam." Add hereunto 
that place of Socrates, lib. 5. Hist. Eccles. c. 22. Ev AvTioxtia 
ttjq 'Evptac, r\ E/c/cX?jcrta avrwrpotyov f%« rrjv Qzaiv* ov yap 
wpog avaroXag to Ovuiacmjpiov, aWa irpog dvcnv opa. And 
compare it with that other place of Walafridus Strabo, where he 
shewethboth in the Church that Constantine and Helena builded 
at Jerusalem ; and at Rome also in the Church of All Saints (which 
before was the Pantheon), and St. Peter's ; " Altaria non tantum 
ad Orientem, sed etiam in alias partes esse distributa." 
April 16, 1622. 




TABLE-TALK. 133 

Clergy. 

| HOUGH a Clergyman have no Faults of his 
own, jet the Faults of the whole Trihe shah 
be laid upon him, so that he shall be sure 
not to lack. 

2. The Clergy would have us believe them against 
our own Keason, as the Woman would have had her 
Husband against his own Eyes : "What ! will you be- 
lieve your own Eyes before your own sweet Wife ! 

3. The Condition of the Clergy towards their Prince, 
and the Condition of the Physician is all one; the Phy- 
sicians tell the Prince they have Agarick and Ehubarb, 
good for him and good for his Subjects' Bodies ; upon 
this he gives them leave to use it; but if it prove naught, 
then away with it, they shall use it no more : So the 
Clergy tell the Prince they have Physic good for his 
Soul, and good for the Souls of his People ; upon that 
he admits them ; but when he finds by Experience they 
both trouble him and his People, he will have no more 
to do with them. What is that to them, or any body 
else, if a King will not go to Heaven ? 

4. A Clergyman goes not a dram further than this, 
you ought to obey your Prince in general. If he does 
he is lost. How to obey him, you must be inform' d by 
those whose Profession it is to tell you. The Parson 
of the Tower, a good discreet Man, told Dr. Mosely, 
(who was sent to me and the rest of the Gentlemen 
committed the 3d. Car oil, to persuade us to submit to 
the King) that he found no such Words as Parliament, 



134 DISCOURSES, OR 

Habeas Corpus, Return, Tower, &c, neither in the 
Fathers, nor the Schoolmen, nor in the Text ; and there- 
fore for his part he believed he understood nothing of 
the Business. A Satire upon all those Clergymen that 
meddle with Matters they do not understand. 

5. All confess there never was a more learned Clergy ; 
no Man taxes them with Ignorance. But to talk of 
that, is like the fellow that was a great "Wencher ; he 
wish'd God would forgive him his Lechery, and lay 
Usury to his Charge. The Clergy have worse Faults. 

6. The Clergy and the Laity together are never like 
to do well; 'tis as if a Man were to make an excellent 
Feast, and should have his Apothecary and his Phy- 
sician come into the Kitchen ; the Cooks if they were 
let alone would make excellent Meat ; but then comes 
the Apothecary and he puts Bhubarb into one Sauce 
and Agarick into another Sauce. Chain up the Clergy 
on both sides.* 



High Commission.^ 

| EN cry out upon the High Commission, as 
if the Clergymen only had to do in it, when 
I believe there are more Lay-men in Com- 
mission there, than Clergy -men ; if the Lay-men will 



* Chain up both sides, i. e. Court-clergy and Puritan. 

•f Established in the first year of Eliz. in place of a greater 
power under the Pope, (says Clarendon,) Commissioners who 
exercised the King's Ecclesiastical Supremacy. Intended as a 
Court to reform manners, it grew to a contempt of the Common 
Law — to reprehend the Judges, &c. It was abolished in 1641. 




TABLE-TALK. 135 

not come, whose fault is that ? So of the Star-Cham- 
ber ; the People think the Bishops only censur'd Prynne, 
Burton, and Bastivick, when there were but two there , 
and one spake not in his own Case.* 



House of Commons. 

HEBE be but two Erroneous Opinions in 

the House of Commons : That the Lords 

|§$ sit only for themselves, when the Truth is, 




they sit as well for the Commonwealth. The Knights 
and Burgesses sit for themselves and others, some 
for more, some for fewer ; and what is the Beason ? 
Because the Boom will not hold all. The Lords being 
few, they all come ; and imagine the Boom able to hold 
all the Commons of England, then the Knights and 
Burgesses would sit no otherwise than the Lords do. 
The second Error is, that the House of Commons are 
to begin to give Subsidies, yet if the Lords dissent they 
can give no money. 

2. The House of Commons is called the Lower 
House, in twenty Acts of Parliament; but what are 
twenty Acts of Parliament amongst Friends ? 

3. The Form of a Charge runs thus ; i~ Accuse in 



* " There were but two there, and one spake," fyc. London and 
Canterbury. Prynne and the others arraigned them for sitting 
judges in their own cause. Laud made a long speech, says 
Fuller, against making innovations in the Church, and con- 
cluded, " that he left the prisoners to God's mercy and the King's 
justice." 




136 DISCOURSES, OB 

the Name of all the Commons of England. How then 
can any Man be as a Witness, when every Man is made 
the Accuser ? 



Confession. 

£N time of Parliament it used to be one of 
the first things the House did, to Petition 
the King that his Confessor might be re- 
moved, as fearing either his Power with the King, or 
else, lest he should reveal to the Pope what the House 
was in doing ; as no doubt he did when the Catholic 
Cause was concerned. 

2. The Difference between us and the Papists is, we 
both allow Contrition, but the Papists make Confession 
a part of Contrition; they say a Man is not sufficiently 
contrite, till he confess his Sins to a Priest. 

3. Why should I think a Priest will not reveal Con- 
fession ? I am sure he will do any thing that is for- 
bidden him, haply not so often as I. The utmost 
Punishment is Deprivation ; and how can it be proved, 
that ever any Man revealed Confession, when there is 
no Witness ? And no Man can be Witness in his own 
Cause. A mere Gullery. There was a time when 
'twas public hi the Church, and that is much against 
then 1 Auricular Confession. 



TABLE-TALK. 137 



Competency. 





i HAT which is a Competency for one Man, 
is not enough for another, no more than 
that which will keep one Man warm, will 
keep another Man warm : one Man can go in Doublet 
and Hose, when another Man cannot he without a 
Cloak, and jet have no more Clothes than is necessary 
for him. 

Great Conjunction. 

| HE greatest Conjunction of Saturn and Ju- 
piter, happens but once in eight Hundred 
Years, and therefore Astrologers can make 
no Experiments of it, nor foretel what it means ; not 
but that the Stars may mean something ; but we cannot 
tell what, because we cannot come at them. Suppose 
a Planet were a Simple, or an Herb, how could a Phy- 
sician tell the Virtue of that Simple, unless he could 
come at it, to apply it ? 

Conscience. 

|E that hath a Scrupulous Conscience, is like 
I ^ a Horse that is not well weigh'd,* he starts 
at every Bird that flies out of the Hedge. 
2. A knowing Man will do that, which a tender Con- 

* Dr. Wilkin's reads well wayed, which is probably the right 
word. 




138 DISCOURSES, OB 

science Man dares not do, by reason of his Ignorance ; 
the other knows there is no hurt ; as a Child is afraid 
to go into the dark, when a Man is not, because he 
knows there is no Danger. 

3. If we once come to leave that outloose, as to pre- 
tend Conscience against Law, who knows what incon- 
venience may follow ? For thus, Suppose an Anabaptist 
comes and takes my Horse, I Sue him ; he tells me he 
did according to his Conscience; his Conscience tells 
him all things are common amongst the Saints, what is 
mine is his ; therefore you do ill to make such a Law, 
" If any Man takes another's Horse he shall be hanged." 
"What can I say to this Man ? He does according to 
his Conscience. Why is not he as honest a Man as 
he that pretends a Ceremony established by Law is 
against Ins Conscience ? Generally to pretend Con- 
science against Law is dangerous ; in some Cases haply 
we may. 

4. Some men make it a Case of Conscience, whether 
a Man may have a Pigeon-house, because his Pigeons 
eat other Folks' Corn. But there is no such thing as 
Conscience in the Business ; the Matter is, whether he 
be a Man of such Quality, that the State allows him to 
have a Dove-house ; if so, there's an end of the busi- 
ness ; his Pigeons have a right to eat where they please 
themselves.* 

* To have a dove-house. A Lord of a Manor may build a dove- 
cot upon his land, parcel of his manor; but a tenant of the 
manor cannot do it without licence. 3 Salkeld, 248. But any 
Freeholder may build a dove-cot on his own ground. Cro. Jac. 
382. 490. Bum's Justice. 




TABLE-TALK. 139 

Consecrated Places. 

| HE Jews had a peculiar way of consecrating 
things to God, which we have not. 

2. Under the Law, God, who was Master 
of all, made choice of a Temple to worship in, where 
he was more especially present ; just as the Master of 
the House, who owns all the House, makes choice of 
one Chamber to He in, which is called the Master's 
Chamber. But under the Gospel there was no such 
thing; Temples and Churches are set apart for the 
conveniency of Men to Worship in ; they cannot meet 
upon the Point of a Needle ; but God himself makes 
no choice. 

3. All things are God's already ; we can give him 
no right, by consecrating any, that he had not be- 
fore, only we set it apart to his Service. Just as a 
Gardener brings his Lord and Master a Basket of 
Apricocks, and presents them, his Lord thanks him, 
perhaps gives him something for his pains, and yet the 
Apricocks were as much his Lord's before as now. 

4. "What is Consecrated, is given to some particular 
man, to do God Service, not given to God, but given 
to Man to serve God ; and there's not any thing, 
Lands, or Goods, but some Men or other have it in 
their Power to dispose of as they please. The saying 
things Consecrated cannot be taken away, makes men 
afraid of Consecration. 

5. Yet Consecration has this Power : when a Man 
has Consecrated any thing to God, he cannot of him- 
self take it away. 




140 DISCOURSES, OB 

Contracts. 

?F our Fathers have lost their Liberty, why 
may not we labour to regain it? Answ. 
We must look to the Contract ; if that be 
rightly made we must stand to it ; * if we once grant 
we may recede from Contracts upon any inconveniency 
that may afterwards happen, we shall have no Bargain 
kept. If I sell you a Horse, and do not like my Bar- 
gain, I will have my Horse again. 

2. Keep your Contracts, so far a Divine goes, but 
how to make our Contracts is left to ourselves ; and as 
we agree upon the conveying of this House, or that 
Land, so it must be. If you offer me a Hundred 
Pounds for my Glove, I tell you what my Glove is, a 
plain Glove, pretend no Virtue in it, the Glove is my 
own, I profess not to sell Gloves, and we agree for an 
hundred Pounds, I do not know why I may not with a 
safe Conscience take it. The want of that common 
Obvious Distinction of Jus prceceptivum, and Jus per- 
missivimirf does much trouble Men. 



* It will be evident that the force of this observation must 
depend upon the word rightly. But hear the judicious Barrow : 
" An indefectible power cannot be settled by man, because there 
is no power ever extant at one time greater than there is at 
another ; so that whatever power we may raise, the other may 
demolish : there being no bonds whereby the present time may 
bind all posterity." 

f Jus permissivum, fyc. The Law that enjoins, and the Law 
that suffers. " If this doth authorize usury which before was 
but permissive" &c. — Bacon. 



TABLE-TALK. 141 

3. Lady Kent Articled with Sir Edward Herbert, 
that he should come to her when she sent for him, and 
stay with her as long as she would have him, to which 
he set his hand ; then he Articled with her, That he 
should go away when he pleased, and stay away as long 
as he pleased, to which she set her hand.* This is the 
Epitome of all the Contracts in the World, betwixt 
Man and Man, betwixt Prince and Subject, they keep 
them as long as they like them, and no longer. 

Council. 

| HEY talk (but blasphemously enough) that 
the Holy Ghost is President of their General 
Councils, when the Truth is, the odd Man 
is still the Holy Ghost. 

Convocation.^ 

HEN the King sends his Writ for a Par- 
liament, he sends for two Knights for a 
Shire, and two Burgesses for a Corpora- 

* Sir Edward Herbert, Solicitor and Attorney General to 
Charles the First, and for some time Lord Keeper to Charles the 
Second, when in exile. Dr. Aikin says that a legal friend sug- 
gested to him that Sir Edward Herbert, who was an eminent 
lawyer, was probably retained for his advice by Lady Kent, at 
an annual salary ; and he produced examples of deeds granted 
for payments on the same account, one of them as late as the year 
1715, Hence it would appear that the lady had a great deal of 
law business on her hands, which would render the domestic 
counsel of such a person as Selden very valuable to her. 

f The Convocation summoned with the Parliament in April, 





142 DISCOURSES, OR 

tion ; but when he sends, for two Arch-Bishops for a 
Convocation, he commands them to assemble the whole 
Clergy ; but they, out of Custom amongst themselves, 
send to the Bishops of their Provinces to will them to 
bring two Clerks for a Diocese, the Dean, one for the 
Chajjter, and the Arch-Deacons; but to the King 
every Clergyman is there present. 

2. We have nothing so nearly expresses the Power 
of a Convocation, in respect of a Parliament, as a 
Court-Leet, where they have a Power to make By- 
Laws, as they call them ; as that a Man shall put so 
many Cows or Sheep in the Common; but they can 
make nothing that is contrary to the Laws of the 
Kingdom. 

Creed. 

'THANASIUS'S Creed is the shortest,* 
take away the Preface, and the Force, and 
the Conclusion, which are not part of the 
Creed. In the Nicene Creed it is slg ekkXyxtlocv, I be- 
lieve in the Church ; but now, as our Common-prayer 
has it, I believe one Catholic and Apostolic Church. 
They like not Creeds, because they would have no 



1640, continued after that Parliament was dissolved, under a new 
writ, says Clarendon, u under the proper title of a Synod. Made 
Canons which it was thought it might do ; and gave subsidies out 
of Parliament, and enjoined oaths, which it certainly might not 
do," &c. 

* Creed. — Shortest. It is confined to the Trinity ; leaving out 
Catholic Church, Communion of Saints, &c. 





TABLE-TALK. 143 

Forms of Faith, as they have none of Prayer, though 
there be more reason for the one than for the other. 



Damnation. 

[ F the Physician sees you eat any thing that 
is not good for your Body, to keep you 
from it, he cries 'tis Poison ; if the Divine 
sees you do any thing that is hurtful for your Soul, to 
keep you from it, he cries you are damned. 

2. To preach long, loud, and Damnation, is the way 
to he cried up. We love a Man that damns us, and we 
run after him again to save us. If a Man had a sore 
Leg, and he should go to an Honest Judicious Chi- 
rurgeon, and he should only bid him keep it warm, and 
anoint with such an Oil (an Oil well known) that would 
do the Cure, haply he would not much regard him, be- 
cause he knows the Medicine beforehand an ordinary 
Medicine. But if he should go to a Surgeon that 
should tell him, your Leg will Gangrene within three 
days, and it must be cut off, and you will die, unless 
you do something that I could tell you, what listening 
there would be to this Man ! Oh, for the Lord's Sake, 
tell me what this is ; I will give you any content for 
your pains. 

Devils. 

*HY have we none possessed with Devils in 
England ? The old Answer is, the Protes- 
tants the Devil hath already, and the Pa- 
pists are so Holy, he dares not meddle with them. 




144 DISCOURSES, OR 

Why then beyond Seas where a Nun is possest, when 
a Huguenot conies into the Church, does not the Devil 
hunt them out ? The Priest teaches him,* you never 
saw the Devil throw up a Nun's coats ; mark that, the 
Priest will not suffer it, for then the People will spit at 
him. 

2. Casting out Devils is mere Juggling ; they never 
cast out any but what they first cast in. They do it 
where for Eeverence no Man shall dare to examine it ; 
they do it in a Corner, in a Mortise-hole, not in the 
Market-place. They do nothing but what may be done 
by Art ; they make the Devil fly out of the Window, in 
the Likeness of a Bat or a Eat ; why do they not hold 
him? Why in the Likeness of a Bat, or a Bat, or 
some Creature ? That is, why not in some shape we 
paint him in, with Claws and Horns? By this trick 
they gain much, gain upon Men's Fancies, and so are 
reverenced ; and certainly if the Priest deliver me from 
him that is my most deadly Enemy, I have all the 
reason in the World to reverence him. Objection. 
But if this be Juggling, why do they punish Impos- 
tures ? Answer. For great reason, because they do not 
play their part well, and for fear others should discover 
them ; and so all of them ought to be of the same 
Trade. 

3. A Person of Quality came to my Chamber in the 
Temple, and told me he had two Devils in his Head (I 
wondered what he meant), and just at that time, one of 



* Him, i. e. the Devil. Find out the Huguenots and enter 
into them, or hunt them out of the Church. 



TABLE-TALK. 145 

them bid him kill me : with that I begun to be afraid, 
and thought he was mad. He said he knew I could 
cure him, and therefore entreated me to give him some- 
thing ; for he was resolved he would go to nobody 
else. I perceiving what an Opinion he had of me, and 
that 'twas only Melancholy that troubled him, took him 
in hand, warranted him, if he would follow my direc- 
tions to cure him in a short time. I desired him to 
let me be alone about an hour, and then to come again, 
which he was very willing to. In the meantime I got 
a Card, and lapped it up handsome in a Piece of Taf- 
fata, and put Strings to the Taffata, and when he came, 
gave it him to hang about his Neck, withal charged 
him, that he should not disorder himself neither with 
eating or drinking, but eat very little of Supper, and 
say his Prayers duly when he went to Bed, and I made 
no Question but he would be well in three or four Days. 
"Within that time I went to Dinner to his House, and 
asked him how he did ? He said, he was much better, 
but not perfectly well, or in truth he had not dealt 
clearly with me. He had four Devils in his head, and 
he perceived two of them were gone, with that which I 
had given him, but the other two troubled him still. 
Well, said I, I am glad two of them are gone ; I make 
no doubt but to get away the other two likewise. So 
I gave him another thing to hang about his Neck: 
Three Days after he came to me to my Chamber and 
profest he was now as well as ever he was in his Life, 
and did extremely thank me for the great Care I had 
taken of him. I fearing lest he might relapse into 
the like Distemper, told him that there was none but 




146 DISCOURSES, OR 

myself, and one Physician more in the whole Town that 
could cure Devils in the Head, and that was Dr. 
Harvey (whom I had prepared), and wished him, if 
ever he found himself ill in my Absence, to go to him, 
for he could cure his Disease as well as myself. The 
Gentleman lived many Years and was never troubled 
after. 

Self Denial. 

J IS much the Doctrine of the times, that 
Men should not please themselves, but 
deny themselves every thing they take 
delight in; not look upon Beauty, wear no good Clothes, 
eat no good Meat, tyc. which seems the greatest Accusa- 
tion that can be upon the Maker of all good things. If 
they be not to be used, why did God make them ? 
The truth is, they that preach against them cannot 
make use of them theirselves, and then again, they get 
Esteem by seeming to condemn them. But mark it 
while you live, if they do not please themselves as much 
as they can ; and we live more by Example than Pre- 
cept.* 

Duel. 

DUEL may still be granted in some Cases 
by the Law of England, and only there. 
That the Church allowed it Anciently, ap- 
pears by this : in their public Liturgies there were 

* We live more by example than precept, and show our lires 
more in what we do than what we say. 




TABLE-TALK. 147 

Prayers appointed for the Duellists to say ; the Judge 
used to bid them go to such a Church and pray, Sfc. 
But whether is this Lawful ? If you grant any "War 
Lawful, I make no doubt but to convince it. War is 
Lawful, because God is the only Judge between two, 
that are Supreme.* Now if a Difference happen be- 
tween two Subjects, and it cannot be decided by Hu- 
man Testimony, why may they not put it to God to 
Judge between them by the Permission of the Prince ? 
Nay, what if we. should bring it down for Argument's 
sake, to the Swordmen? One gives me the Lie, 'tis a 
great disgrace to take it ; the Law has made no Pro- 
vision to give Remedy for the Injury, if you can sup- 
pose any thing an Injury for which the Law gives no 
Remedy: why am not I in this Case Supreme, and may 
therefore right myself ?f 

2. A Duke ought to fight with a Gentleman. The 
Reason is this : the Gentleman will say to the Duke 
'tis True, you hold a higher Place in the State than I : 
there's a great distance between you and me, but your 
Dignity does not Privilege you to do me an Injury; as 



* This is the reading of the MS. in the Harleian collection. 
The original Edition has " two that is supreme." The meaning 
appears to be two that acknowledge no common jurisdiction. 

| But Selden has himself remarked in his treatise of "the 
Duello or Single-Combat," chap. iv. That the divine law and 
Christianity teach otherwise. One of the most satisfactory evi- 
dences of advancing civilization in a right direction is the unfre- 
quency of this hateful practice among us. Paley has truly said, 
" Murder is forbidden ; and wherever human life is taken away, 
otherwise than by public authority, there is murder." — Moral 
and Political Philosophy, vol. i. p. 270. 



148 DISCOURSES, OR 

soon as ever you do me an Injury, you make yourself 
my equal ; and as you are my equal I challenge you ; 
and in sense the Duke is bound to Answer him. This 
will give you some Light to understand the Quarrel 
betwixt a Prince and his Subjects. Though there be a 
vast Distance between him and them, and they are to 
obey him, according to their Contract, yet he hath no 
power to do them an Injury : then they think them- 
selves as much bound to vindicate their Eight, as they 
are to obey his Lawful Commands ; nor is there any 
other measure of Justice left upon Earth but Arms. 



Epitaph. 

N Epitaph must be made fit for the Person 
for whom it is made. For a Man to say 
all the Excellent things that can be said 
upon one, and call that his Epitaph, is as if a Painter 
should make the handsomest Piece he can possibly 
make, and say 'twas my Picture. It holds in a Funeral 
Sermon. 

Equity. 

EQUITY in Law, is the same that the Spirit 
is in Religion, what every one pleases to 
make it. Sometimes they go according to 
Conscience, sometimes according to Law, sometimes 
according to the Kule of Court. 

2. Equity is a Roguish thing : for Law we have a 
measure, know what to trust to ; Equity is according 





TABLE-TALK. 149 

to the Conscience of him that is Chancellor, and as that 
is larger or narrower, so is Equity. 'Tis all one as if 
they should make the Standard for the measure, we call 
a Foot, a Chancellor's Foot ; what an uncertain Mea- 
sure would this be ? One Chancellor has a long Foot, 
another a short Foot, a Third an indifferent Foot : 'Tis 
the same thing in the Chancellor's Conscience. 

3. That saying, " Do as you would be done to," is 
often misunderstood, for 'tis not thus meant, that I a 
private Man should do to you a private Man as I would 
have you to me, but do, as we have agreed to do one to 
another by public Agreement. If the Prisoner should 
ask the Judge, whether he would be content to be 
hanged, were he in his case, he would answer no. 
Then says the Prisoner, do as you would be done to. 
Neither of them must do as private Men, but the Judge 
must do by him as they have publicly agreed ; that is, 
both Judge and Prisoner have consented to a Law, that 
if either of them steal, they shall be hanged. 



Evil Speaking. 

|E that speaks ill of another, commonly be- 
Ifore he is aware, makes himself such a one 

*"2 ... 

) as he speaks against ; for if he had Civility 
or Breeding he would forbear such kind of Language. 
2. A gallant Man is above ill words : an Example 
we have in the old Lord of Salisbury, who was a great 
wise Man. Stone had call'd some Lord about Court, 
Fool ; the Lord complains, and has Stone whipt : Stone 




150 DISCOURSES, OB 

cries, I might have called my Lord of Salisbury Fool 
often enough, before he would have had me whipt.* 

3. Speak not ill of a great Enemy, but rather give 
him good words, that he may use you the better, if you 
chance to fall into his Hands. The Spaniard did this 
when he was dying. His Confessor told him (to work 
him to Repentance) how the Devil tormented the wicked 
that went to He]l: the Spaniard replying, called the 
Devil my Lord. I hope my Lord the Devil is not so 
cruel, his Confessor reproved him. Excuse me said 
the Bon, for calling him so, I know not into what 



* Whipping was the punishment generally inflicted. Lear 
threatens his fool with the whip. " Every one knows, says 
Mr. Douce, the disgraceful conduct of Archbishop Laud to poor 
Archee. As Laud was proceeding to the council, the jester 
accosted him with * Wha's foule now ? doth not your Grace hear 
the news from Striveling about the Liturgy ?' This was not to be 
pardoned either by the prelate or his master, and the records of 
the council, March 11, 1637-8, tell us that Archibald Armstrong, 
the king's fool, for certain scandalous words of a high nature 
spoken by him against the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury his 
grace, shall have his coat pulled over his head, and be discharged 
the king's service, and banished the court." See Rushworth, 
part ii. vol. i, p. 471. Bruntome, " Dames Galantes" ad fin. re- 
lates a story of a fool belonging to Elizabeth of France, who got a 
whipping in the kitchen for a licentious speech to his mistress. 
The haughty Duke D'Espernon was however more discreet ; his 
Gascon accent was a constant source of raillery on the part of 
Maret, the fool of Lewis xin., whose talent lay in mimicry. 
Richelieu admonished the Duke to get rid of his provincial tones, 
at the same time counterfeiting his manner, and sarcastically en- 
treated him not to take the advice in bad part. " Why should 
I," replied the Duke, " when I bear as much every day from the 
King's fool who mocks me in your presence?" — Vigneul de Mar- 
ville f Melanges, ii. 50. 




TABLE-TALK, 151 

Hands I may fall, and if I happen into his, I hope he 
will use me the better, for giving him good words. 



Excommunication.* 

| HAT place they bring for Excommunica- 
tion, " put away from among yourselves 
that wicked Person," 1 Cor. v. Chap. 13 
Verse is corrupted in the Greek: for it should be, to 
Ttovngov, put away that Evil from among you, not tov 
TTovygov, that Evil Person, besides, o Trovnfog is the 
Devil in Scripture, and it may be so taken there ; and 
there is a new Edition of Theocloret come out, that has 
it right to TTovnfov. 'Tis true the Christians before 
the Civil State became Christian, did by Covenant and 
Agreement set down how they should live, and he that 
did not observe what they agreed upon, should come 
no more amongst them, that is, be Excommunicated. 
Such Men are spoken of by the Apostle [Romans i. 
31.] whom he calls acruvBsToug kou ao-Trovdoug, the Vul- 
gate has it Incomjjositos et sine fcedere, the .last word is 
pretty well, but the first not at all. Origen in his Book 



* All this was argued by Selden in the Assembly of Divines, 
March, 1644-5. The Presbyterians claiming the Keys of Heaven 
to retain or remit sins — to exclude from Sacrament, &c. (See 
articles " Sacrament," " Synod," " Assembly*") At last it was 
decided that the Presbyterian Synods might have the power to 
suspend from Sacrament, &c. but always subject to the final de- 
cision of Parliament if an appeal were made. The Presbyterians 
protest against this vote ; and are warned that they have violated 
the Privileges of Parliament, and come under a Praemunire. 



152 DISCOURSES, OR 

against Celsus, speaks of the Christians' vuvQwyi : the 
Translation renders it Conventus, as [if] it signifies a 
Meeting, when it is plain it signifies a Covenant, and 
the English Bible turned the other Word well, " Cove- 
nant-breakers." Pliny tells us, the Christians took an 
Oath amongst themselves to live thus and thus.* 

2. The other place,f Die Ecclesice Matth. xviii. 17, 
tell the Church, is but a weak Ground to raise Excom- 
munication upon, especially from the Sacrament, the 
lesser Excommunication ; since when that was spoken, 
the Sacrament was [not J] instituted. The Jews? Ec- 
clesia was their Sanhedrim, their Court : so that the 
meaning is, if after once or twice Admonition, this 
Brother will not be reclaimed, bring him thither. 

3. The first Excommunication§ was 180 Years after 

* Plinii Epistol. lib. x. p. 97. 

f The arguments here used are mostly taken from the learned 
work of Thomas Erastus, a physician of the palatinate, upon 
Ecclesiastical power, to which he denies all temporal jurisdiction. 
The title is rather a long one : " Explicatio Gravissimae Ques- 
tionis utrum Excommunicatio, quatenus Keligionem intelligentes 
et amplexantes, a Sacramentorum usu, propter admissum facinus 
arcet ; mandato nitatur Divino, an excogitata sit ab hominibus." 
Pesclavii, 1589, 4to. Thus in his 51st Thesis: "Die Eccle- 
siae non aliud significare, quam die populi tui, Magistri tui (seu 
qui ejusdem sit religionis) antequam apud profanum Magistra- 
tum cum fratre tuo litiges : Ut Apost. Paulus in 1 ed. Cor. vi. 
cap. ubi propter hunc causam arbitros ex suo ordine eos jubet 
eligere, pulcherrime exponit. Quis autem dubitat, hoc locum 
habere non posse, ubi magistratum Deus nobis largitur pium?" 

Selden was called an Erastian by his opponents. 

\ The word not is erroneously omitted in all previous editions. 
See Matth. xvii. 17. 

§ Always an enemy to the usurpations of Ecclesiastical au- 



TABLE-TALK. 153 

Christ, and that by Victor, Bishop of Borne : but that 
was no more than this, that they should Communicate 
and receive the Sacrament amongst themselves, not 
with those of the other Opinion ; the Controversy, (as 
I take it,) being about the Feast of Easter. Men do 
not care for Excommunication, because they are shut 



thority, when the points of Excommunication and suspension 
from the Sacrament, as part of the discipline in the new establish- 
ment of Religion, were debated in the House, September 3, 1645, 
Seld en gave his opinion on the subject; and Whitelock, in his 
Memorials, has given the following outline of his argument : 

" That for 4000 years there was no sign of any law to suspend 
persons from religious exercises : — that under the law every sin^ 
ner was Eo nomine, to come and offer, as he was a sinner ; and no 
priest or other authority had to do with him, unless it might be 
made to appear to them whether another did repent or not, which 
was hard to be done. Strangers were kept away from the Pass- 
over, but they were pagans. The question is not now for keeping 
pagans in times of Christianity, but protestants from protestant 
worship. No Divine can show that there is any such command 
as this, to suspend from the Sacrament. No man is kept from 
the Sacrament, eo nomine, because he is guilty of any sin, by the 
constitution of the reformed Churches, or because he hath not 
made satisfaction. Every man is a sinner ; the difference is only 
that one is a sinner in private, the other in public : the one is as 
much against God as the other. Die Ecclesice in St. Matthew 
meant the courts of law which then sat in Jerusalem. No man 
can show any Excommunication till the popes Victor and Zephy- 
rinus, 200 years after Christ, first began to use it in private 
quarrels : whence Excommunication is but a human invention : 
it was taken from the heathen." 

Dr. Aikin has justly observed that Selden could not have 
more explicitly declared himself against that spirit of Ecclesias- 
tical dominion which began to characterise the new rulers, and 
which provoked Milton to exclaim 

New presbyter is but old priest writ large. 



154 DISCOURSES, OR 

out of the Church, or delivered up to Satan, but be- 
cause the Law of the Kingdom takes hold of them. 
After so many Days a Man cannot Sue, no not for his 
Wife, if you take her from him ; and there may be as 
much reason, to grant it for a small Fault, if there be 
contumacy, as for a great one. In Westminster Hall 
you may Out-law a Man for forty Shillings, which is 
their Excommunication, and you can do no more for 
Forty Thousand Pound. 

4. When Constantine became Christian, he so fell 
in love with the Clergy, that he let them be Judges of 
all things ; but that continued not above three or four 
Years, by reason they were to be Judges of Matters 
they understood not, and then they were allowed to 
meddle with nothing but Religion. All Jurisdiction 
belonged to him, and he scanted them out as much as 
he pleased, and so things have since continued. They 
Excommunicate for three or four Things ; matters con- 
cerning Adultery, Tithes, Wills, 8fc, which is the civil 
Punishment the State allows for such Faults. If a 
Bishop Excommunicate a Man for what he ought not, 
the Judge has Power to absolve, and punish the Bishop : 
if they had that Jurisdiction from God, why does not 
the Church Excommunicate for Murder, for Theft ? If 
the Civil Power might take away all but three Things, 
why may they not take them away too ? If this Ex- 
communication were taken away, the Presbyters would 
be quiet ; 'tis that they have a mind to, 'tis that they 
would fain be at. Like the Wench that was to be 
Married : she asked her Mother when 'twas done, if 
she should go to Bed presently. No, says her Mother, 




TABLE-TALK. 155 

you must dine first. And then to Bed Mother ? No, 
you must dance after Dinner. And then to Bed Mo- 
ther ? No, you must go to Supper. And then to Bed 
Mother? $c. 

Faith and Works. 

I WAS an unhappy Division that has been 
made between Faith and Works. Tho' in 
my Intellect I may divide them, just as in 
the Candle I know there is both Light and Heat ; but 
yet put out the Candle, and they are both gone ; one 
remains not without the other : So 'tis betwixt Faith 
and Works. Nay, in a right Conception, Fides est 
opus ; if I believe a thing because I am commanded, 
that is Opus. 

Fasting-Days. 

*HAT the Church debars us one Day, she 
gives us leave to take out in another. First 
we fast, and then we feast ; first there is a 
Carnival, and then a Lent. 

2. Whether do Human Laws bind the Conscience ? 
If they do, 'tis a way to ensnare : If we say they do 
not, we open the Door to disobedience. Answer. In 
this Case we must look to the Justice of the Law, and 
intention of the Law-giver : if there be no Justice in 
the Law, 'tis not to be obeyed ; if the intention of the 
Law-giver be absolute, our obedience must be so too. 
If the intention of the Law-giver enjoin a Penalty as a 




156 DISCOURSES, OB 

Compensation for the Breach of the Law, I sin not if I i 
submit to the Penalty ; if it enjoin a Penalty, as a fur- | 
ther enforcement of Obedience to the Law, then ought 
I to observe it, which may be known by the often re- 
petition of the Law. The way of fasting is enjoined 
unto them, who yet do not observe it. The Law enjoins 
a Penalty as an enforcement to Obedience ; which in- 
tention appears by the often calling upon us, to keep 
that Law by the King, and the Dispensation of the 
Church to such as are not able to keep it, as young 
Children, old Folks, diseased Men, Sfc. 

Fathers and Sons. 

\T hath ever been the way for Fathers, to 
bind their Sons. To strengthen this by the 
Law of the Land, every one at Twelve 
Years of Age is to take the Oath of Allegiance in 
Court-Leets, whereby he swears Obedience to the 
King. 

Fines. 

old Law was, that when a Man was 
Fined, he was to be Fined Salvo Contene- 
mento, so as his Countenance might be 
safe, taking Countenance in the same sense as your 
Country man does, when he says, if you will come unto 
my House, I will show you the best Countenance I 
can ; that is, not the best Face, but the best Entertain- 
ment. The meaning of the Law was, that so much 






TABLE-TALK. 157 

should be taken from a Man, such a gobbet sliced off, 
that yet notwithstanding he might live in the same 
Rank and Condition he lived in before ; but now they 
fine men ten times more than they are worth. 



Free -will. 

[HE Puritans who will allow no Free-will at 
all, but God does all, yet will allow the 
Subject his Liberty to do or not to do, not- 
withstanding the King, the God upon Earth. The 
Arminians, who hold we have Free-will, yet say, when 
we come to the King, there must be all Obedience, and 
no Liberty to be stood for. 



Friars. 

[HE Friars say they possess nothing : whose 
then are the Lands they hold? not their 
Superior's, he hath vowed Poverty as well 
as they. Whose then ? To answer this, 'twas decreed 
they should say they were the Pope's. And why must 
the Friars be more perfect than the Pope himself? 

2. If there had been no Friars Christendom might 
have continued quiet, and things remained at a stay. 

If there had been no Lecturers, which succeed the 
Friars in their way, the Church of England might have 
stood and flourished at this Day. 




158 DISCOURSES, OR 



Friends. 





LD Friends are best. King James used to 
call for his old Shoes ; they were easiest 
for Ins Feet. 



Genealogy of Christ. 

IHEY that say the Keason why Joseph's Pe- 
digree is set down, and not Mary's, is, be- 
cause the Descent from the Mother is lost, 
and swallowed up, say something ; but yet if a Jewish 
Woman, married with a Gentile, they only took Notice 
of the Mother, not of the Father. But they that say 
they were both of a Tribe,* say nothing ; for the Tribes 
might marry one with another, and the Law against it 
was only Temporary, in the Time while Joshua was 
dividing the Land, lest the being so long about it, there 
might be a confusion. 

2. That Christ was the Son of Joseph is most ex- 
actly true. For though he was the Son of God, yet 
with the Jews, if any Man kept a Child, and brought 
him up, and called him Son, he was taken for his Son ; 
and his Land (if he had any) was to descend upon 
him ; and therefore the Genealogy of Joseph is justly 
set down. 



* They were both of a tribe, and therefore only the genealog} r 
of one was put down, as such marriage was unlawful, &c. 

This point is discussed in the 18th chap, of Selden's Treatise 
De Successionibus ad Leges Ebrseorum. 



TABLE-TALK. 159 



Gentlemen. 




-HAT a Gentleman is, 'tis hard with us to 
define. In other Countries he is known 
by his Privileges ; in Westminster -JLaR he 
is one that is reputed one ; in the Court of Honour, he 
that hath Arms. The King cannot make a Gentleman 
of Blood. What have you said ? JSTor God Almighty : 
but he can make a Gentleman by Creation. If you ask 
which is the better of these two, Civilly, the Gentle- 
man of Blood, Morally, the Gentleman by Creation may 
be the better ; for the other may be a Debauched Man, 
this a Person of worth. 

2. Gentlemen have ever been more Temperate in 
their Religion, than the common People, as having 
more Reason, the others running in a hurry. In the 
beginning of Christianity, the Fathers writ Contra 
gentes, and Contra Gentiles; they were all one: But 
after all were Christians, the better sort of People still 
retained the Name of Gentiles, throughout the four 
Provinces of the Roman Empire ; as Gentil-homme in 
French, Gentil-huomo in Italian, Gentil-hombre in 
Spanish, and Gentil-man in English: and they, no 
question, being Persons of Quality, kept up those 
Feasts which we borrow from the Gentiles ; as Christ- 
mas, Candlemas, May-day, <fcc. continuing what was 
not directly against Christianity, which the common 
People would never have endured. 




160 DISCOURSES, OB 

Gold. 

|HEKE are two Beasons, why these Words 
(Jesus autem transiens per medium eorum 
that)* were about our old Gold : the one 
is, because Ripley, the Alchymist, when he made Gold 



* We have the following account in Camden's Remains : 

" The first gold that K. Edward III. coyned was in the yeare 
1343, and the pieces were called Florences, because Florentines 
were the coyners. Shortly after he coyned Nobles, of noble faire 
and fine gold ; afterwards the Rose-Noble then current for 6 shil- 
lings and 8 pence, and which our Alchymists do affirme (as an 
unwritten verity) was made by projection or multiplication Al- 
chymicall of Raymund Lully in the Tower of London, who would 
prove it as Alchymically, beside the tradition of the Rabbies in 
that faculty, by the inscription ; for as upon the one side there is 
the King's image in a ship, to notifie that he was the Lord of the 
Seas, with his titles ; set upon the reverse a cross fleury with 
Lioneeux; inscribed, Jesus, autem transiens per medium, illorum ibat. 
Which they profoundly expound, as Jesus passed invisible and in 
most secret manner by the middest of the Pharisees, so that gold 
was made by invisible and secret art among the ignorant. But 
others say, that text was only one of the Amulets used in that 
credulous warfaring age to escape dangers in battle." 

Lenglet du Fresnoy, in his History of Hermetic Philosophy, 
after mentioning Camden's and Selden's account says : " mais je 
n'ai jamais lu en aucun en droit que les artistes de la science Her- 
metique s'en soient servi de ces devises pour les accommoder a 
leur art ; en voici une explication plus simple. 

Raymond Lulle apres son operation trouva moyen de s'evader 
de la Tour de Londres, ou il etoit detenu ; et avec un barque, ou 
un vaisseau, il scut franchir le passage de la mer et sortir de l'An- 
gleterre, sans qu'on s'en appercut. C'est a quoi se rapportent 
ces paroles de l'Evangile, ou Edouard paroit insinuer, que l'auteur 
de la matiere de ces pieces d'or avoit passe au travers de ses vais- 




TABLE-TALK. 161 

in the Tower, the first time he found it he spoke these 
Words, per medium eorum, that is, per medium Ignis 
et Sulphuris. The other, because these Words were 
thought to be a Charm, and that they did bind what- 
soever they were written upon, so that a Man could not 
take it away. To this Eeason I rather incline. 

Hall. 

| HE Hall was the Place where the great Lord 
used to eat, (wherefore else were the Halls 
made so big ?) Where he saw all his Ser- 
vants and Tenants about him. He eat not in private, 
except in time of sickness: when once he became a 
thing cooped up, all his greatness was spoiled. Nay 
the King himself used to eat in the Hall, and his Lords 
sat with him, and then he understood Men. 



Hell 

HEEE are two Texts for Christ's descend- 
ing into Hell:* the one Psal. xvi. the 
other Acts ii. where the Bible that was in 



seaux, comme Jesus Christ fait au milieu de ses Disciples, sans 
qu/on le vit, ou sans qu'on le connut. 

II est vrai cependant, que ce ne fut que sous Edouard III. ou 
V. que l'on commenca en Angleterre a frapper des monnoyes 
d'or ; mais ce pourroit etre de celui que Raymond avoit fait sous 
le regne precedent, ou de celui que Cremer, instruit par Ray- 
mond Lulle, pouvoit avoir produit a ce prince, sous lequel il a 
vecu. 

* The descent into Hell. — For much upon this controverted 
L 




162 DISCOURSES, OB 

use when the Thirty Nine Articles were made has it 
Hell, But the Bible that was in Queen Elizabeth's 
time, when the Articles were confirmed, reads it 
Grave ; and so it continued till the new Translation in 
King James's time, and then 'tis Hell again. But by 
this we may gather the Church of England declined 
as much as they could, the descent, otherwise they 
never would have altered the Bible. 

2. He descended into Hell. This may be the Inter- 
pretation of it. He may be dead and buried, then his 
Soul ascended into Heaven. Afterwards he descended 
again into Hell,* that is, into the Grave, to fetch his 
Body, and to rise again. The Ground of this Interpre- 
tation is taken from the Platonic Learning, who held a 
Metempsychosis, and when the Soul did descend from 
Heaven to take another Body, they called it 'Kara^aiiv 
eig cftnv, taking a^ng for the lower World, the State of 
Mortality. Now the first Christians many of them 
were Platonic Philosophers, and no question spake 
such Language as was then understood amongst them. 
To understand by Hell the Grave is no Tautology; 
because the Creed first tells what Christ suffered, He 
ivas Crucified, Bead, and Buried; then it tells us 
what he did, He descended into Hell, the third day 
he rose again, he ascended, &c. 

point see the Appendix to Parr's Life of Usher, p. 23, et seq. 
Archbishop Usher's opinion was very much that expressed by 
Selden. 

* In Edward the Sixth's Articles it was " went down to hell 
to preach to the spirits there." 




TABLE-TALK. 163 

Holy Days. 

hHEY* say the Church imposes Holy-Days. 
There's no such thing, though the Num- 
ber of Holy-days is set down in some of 
our Common-Prayer Books. Yet that has relation to 
an Act of Parliament, which forbids the keeping of 
any Holy-Days in time of Popery ; but those that are 
kept, are kept by the Custom of the Country ; and I 
hope you will not say the Church imposes that. 

Humility. 

UMILITY is a Virtue all preach, none 
practise, and yet every body is content to 
hear. The Master thinks it good Doctrine 

for his Servant, the Laity for the Clergy, and the Clergy 

for the Laity. 

2. There is Humilitas qucedam in Vitio. If a Man 
does not take notice of that excellency and perfection 
that is in himself, how can he be thankful to God, who 
is the Author of all excellency and perfection ? Nay, 
if a Man hath too mean an Opinion of himself, 'twill 
render him unserviceable both to God and Man. 

3. Pride may be allowed to this or that degree, else 
a Man cannot keep up his Dignity. In Gluttony there 
must be Eating, in Drunkenness there must be drinking : 
'tis not the eating, nor 'tis not the drinking that is to 
be blamed, but the Excess. So in Pride. 

* " They? i. e. the Laudites. 





164 DISCOURSES, OR 

Idolatry. 

;DOLATBY is in a Man's own thought, not 
in the Opinion of another. Put case I how 
to the Altar, why am I guilty of Idolatry ? 
because a stander by thinks so ? I am sure I do not 
believe the Altar to be God ; and the God I worship 
may be bow'd to in all Places, and at all times. 

Jews. 

?OD at the first gave Laws to all Mankind, 
but afterwards he gave peculiar Laws to 
the Jews, which they were only to observe. 
Just as we have the Common Law for all England, 
and yet you have some Corporations that besides have 
peculiar Laws and Privileges to themselves. 

2. Talk what you will of the Jews, that they are 
cursed, they thrive where e'er they come, they are able 
to oblige the Prince of their Country, by lending him 
Money ; none of them beg, they keep together, and for 
their being hated, my life for yours, Christians hate 
one another as much. 

Invincible Ignorance. 

[IS all one to me if I am told of Christ, or 
some Mystery of Christianity, if I am not 
capable of understanding, as if I am not 
told at all ; my Ignorance is as invincible ; and there- 






TABLE-TALK. 165 

fore 'tis vain to call their Ignorance only invincible, who 
never were told of Christ. The trick of it is to advance 
the Priest, whilst the Church of Borne says a Man must 
be told of Christ by one thus and thus ordained. 

Images. 

[HE Papists' taking away the second Com- 
mandment, is not haply so horrid a thing, 
nor so unreasonable amongst Christians as 
we make it ; for the Jews could make no figure of God, 
but they must commit Idolatry, because he had taken 
no shape ; but since the Assumption of our flesh, we 
know what shape to picture God in. Nor do I know 
why we may not make his Image, provided we be sure 
what it is : as we say St. Luke took the picture of the 
Virgin Mary, and St. Veronica of our Saviour. Other- 
wise it would be no honour to the King, to make a 
Picture, and call it the King's Picture, when 'tis nothing 
like him. 

2. Though the learned Papists pray not to Images, 
yet 'tis to be feared the ignorant do ; as appears by that 
Story of St. Nicholas in Spain. A Countryman used 
to offer daily to St. Nicholas's Image, at length by mis- 
chance the Image was broken, and a new one made of 
his own Plum-Tree; after that the Man forebore: 
being complained of to his Ordinary, he answered, 'tis 
true, he used to offer to the old Image, but to the 
new he could not find in his heart, because he knew 
'twas a piece of his own Plum-Tree. You see what 
Opinion this Man had of the Image ; and to this tended 



166 DISCOURSES, OR 

the bowing of their Images, the twinkling of their Eyes, 
the Virgin's Milk, Sfc. Had they only meant repre- 
sentations, a Picture would have done as well as these 
Tricks. It may be with us in England they do not 
worship Images, because living amongst Protestants 
they are either laughed out of it, or beaten out of it by 
shock of Argument. 

3. 'Tis a discreet way concerning Pictures in Churches, 
to set up no new, nor to pull down no old. 

Imperial Constitutions. 

| HEY say Imperial Constitutions did only 
confirm the Canons of the Church; but 
that is not so, for they inflicted Punishment, 
when the Canons never did : viz. If a Man converted a 
Christian to be a Jew, he was to forfeit his Estate, and 
lose his Life. In Valentine's Novels, 'tis said, Constat 
Episcojpus Forum Legibus non habere, et judicant tan- 
turn de Religione* 

Imprisonment. 

[.IE Kenelm Digby was several times taken 
and let go again, at last imprisoned in Win- 
chester House. I can compare him to no- 
thing but a great Fish that we catch and let go again, 
but still he will come to the Bait ; at last therefore we 
put him into some great Pond for Store. 

* Leges Xovellae Divi Valentinianae, A. tit. xii. 






TABLE-TALK. 167 

Incendiaries. 

? ANCY to yourself a Man sets the City on 
Fire at Crvp<plec/ate, and that Fire continues, 
by means of others, till it come to White- 
Friars, and then he that began it would fain quench it : 
does not he deserve to be punished most that first set 
the City on Fire ? So 'tis with the Incendiaries of the 
State. They that first set it on Fire, by Monopolizing, 
Forest Business,* Imprisoning Parliament Men tertio 
Caroli, Sfc. are now become regenerate, and would fain 
quench the Fire. Certainly they deserve most to be 
punished, for being the first Cause of our Distractions. 

Independency. 

^DEPENDENCY is in use *t Amsterdam, 
where forty Churches or Congregations have 
nothing to do one with another. And 'tis 
no question agreeable to the Primitive times, before the 
Emperor became Christian. For either we must say 
every Church governed itself, or else we must fall upon 
that old foolish Rock, that St. Peter and his Successors 
governed all. But when the Civil State became 
Christian, they appointed who should govern them; 
before they governed by agreement and consent : if you 
will not do this, you shall come no more amongst us. 
But both the Independent Man, and the Presbyterian 

* Forest business, encroachments of the King's lands on the 
Subject's. Decided by jury under direction of corrupt Judges. 




168 DISCOURSES, OR 

Man, do equally exclude the Civil Power, though after 
a different manner. 

2. The Independents may as well plead, they should 
not be subject to Temporal Things, not come before 
a Constable, or a Justice of Peace, as they plead they 
should not be Subject in Spiritual things, because St. 
Paul says, Is it so, that there is not a wise Man amongst 
you ?* 

3. The Pope challenges all Churches to be under 
him, the King and the two Archbishops challenge all 
the Church of England to be under them. The Pres- 
byterian Man divides the Kingdom into as many 
Churches as there be Presbyteries; and your Inde- 
pendent would have every Congregation a Church by 
itself. 

Things Indifferent. 

/N time of a Parliament, when things are 
under debate, they are indifferent; but in 
a Church or State settled, there's nothing 
left indifferent. 

Public Interest. 

LL might go well in a Commonwealth, if 
every one in the Parliament would lay down 
his own Interest, and aim at the general 
good. If a man were sick and the whole College of 
Physicians should come to him, and administer sever- 
ally, haply so long as they observed the Kules of Art 

* 1 Corinthians, ch. vi. v. 5. 






TABLE-TALK. 169 

he might recover ; but if one of them had a great deal 
of Scamony by him, he must put off that, therefore he 
prescribes Scamony. Another had a great deal of 
Khubarb, and he must put off that, and therefore he 
prescribes Ehubarb, Sfc. they would certainly kill the 
Man. We destroy the Commonwealth, while we pre- 
serve our own private Interests, and neglect the public. 

Human Invention. 

OU say there must be no Human Invention 
in the Church, nothing but the pure Word. 
Answer. If I give any Exposition, but 
what is expressed in the Text, that is my Invention ; if 
you give another Exposition, that is your Invention, and 
both are Human. For Example, suppose the Word 
Egg were in the Text, I say, 'tis meant an Hen-Egg, 
you say a Goose -Egg ; neither of these are exprest, 
therefore they are Human Inventions; and I am sure 
the newer the Invention the worse ; old Inventions are 
best. 

2. If we must admit nothing but what we read in the 
Bible, what will become of the Parliament ? for we do 
not read of that there. 

Judgments. 

E cannot tell what is a Judgment of God ; 
'tis presumption to take upon us to know.* 
In time of Plague we know we want Health, 

See Spencer on Prodigies, 1685, 8vo. p. 348. 




170 DISCOURSES, OR 

and therefore we pray to God to give us Health : in 
time of War we know we want Peace, and therefore 
we pray to God to give us Peace. Commonly we say 
a Judgment falls upon a Man for something in him we 
cannot abide. An example we have in King James, 
concerning the Death of Henry the Fourth of France : 
one said he was killed for his Wenching, another said 
he was killed for turning his Eeligion. Xo, says King 
James (who could not abide fighting), he was killed for 
permitting Duels in his Kingdom. 



Judge. 







=?E seethe Pageants in Cheajiside, the Lions, 
and the Elephants, but we do not see the Men 
that cany them : we see the Judges look 
big, look like Lions, but we do not see who moves them.* 
2. Little things do great works, when the great things 
will not. If I should take a Pin from the Ground, a 
little pair of Tongs will do it, when a great pair will not. 
Go to a Judge to do a business for you, by no means 
he will not hear of it ; but go to some small Servant 
about him, and he will dispatch it according to your 
heart's desire. 



* The Judges almost unanimously sanctioned Charles's right 
to Ship-Money and other extortions. When Selden and others 
sued to be admitted to be bailed out of the Tower, in 1629, Sir 
Robert Heath, Attorney General, said to the Judges: "I am 
confident that you will not bail them if any danger may ensue ; 
but first you are to consult with the King ; and he will show you 
where the danger lies." 




TABLE-TALK. 171 

3. There could be no mischief in the Common- Wealth 
without a Judge. Though there be false Dice brought 
in at the Groom-Porters,* and cheating offered, yet un- 
less he allow the cheating, and judge the Dice to be 
good, there may be hopes of fair Play. 



Juggling. 

|IS not Juggling that is to be blamed, but 
much Juggling ; for the World cannot be 
Governed without it. All your Ehetoric, 

and all your Elenchs in Logic come within the compass 

of Juggling. 

Jurisdiction. 

[HERE'S no such Thing as Spiritual Juris- 
diction; all is Civil; the Church's is the 
same with the Lord Mayor's. Suppose a 
Christian came into a Pagan Country, how can you 
fancy he shall have any Power there ? he finds fault 
with the Gods of the Country ; well, they will put him to 
death for it: when he is a Martyr, what follows ? Does 
that argue he has any spiritual Jurisdiction? If the 

* An Office of the Royal household succeeding, it is said, to 
the Master of the Revels. He used to keep a Gaming Table at 
Christmas. It should appear that this custom was abolished in 
or about the year 1 700, when a poem was published, with the 
following title : 

" An Elegiack Essay upon the Decease of the Groom -Porter, 
and the Lotteries," fol. 1700. 





172 DISCOURSES, OR 

Clergy say the Church ought to be governed thus, and 
thus, by the Word of God, that is Doctrinal,* that is 
not Discipline. 

2. The Pope he challenges Jurisdiction over all ; the 
Bishops they pretend to it as well as he ; the Presby- 
terians they would have it to themselves ; but over whom 
is all this ? the poor Laymen. 



Jus Divinum. 

LL tilings are held by Jus Divinum, either 
immediately or mediately. 

2. Nothing has lost the Pope so much 
in his Supremacy, as not acknowledging what Princes 
gave him. ? Tis a scorn upon the Civil Power, and an 
unthankfulness in the Priest. But the Church runs to 
Jus divinum, lest if they should acknowledge that what 
they have, they have by positive Law, it might be as 
well taken from them as given to them. 

King. 

KIXG is a thing Men have made for their 
own Sakes, for quietness-sake. Just as in 
a Family one Man is appointed to buy the 
Meat : if every Man should buy, or if there were many 
buyers, they would never agree, one would buy what 
the other liked not, or what the other had bought be- 

* Original edition, that is doctrine all. 




TABLE-TALK. 173 

fore, so there would be a confusion. But that Charge 
being committed to one, he according to his Discretion 
pleases all ; if they have not what they would have one 
day, they shall have it the next, or something as good. 

2. The word King directs our Eyes ; suppose it had 
been Consul, or Dictator. To think all Kings alike is 
the same folly, as if a Consul of Aleppo or Smyrna 
should claim to himself the same Power that a Consul 
at Borne [had.]* What! am not I a Consul ? or a Duke 
of England should think himself like the Duke of Flo- 
rence ; nor can it be imagined, that the word Bao-iteuc; 
did signify the same in Greek as the Hebrew Word 
*"l /D did with the Jews. Besides, let the Divines in 
their Pulpits say what they will, they in their practice 
deny that all is the King's : they sue him, and so does 
all the Nation, whereof they are a part. What matter 
is it then what they Preach or Teach in the Schools ? 

3. Kings are all individual, this or that King, there 
is no Species of Kings. 

4. A King that claims Privileges in his own Country, 
because they have them in another, is just as a Cook, 
that claims Fees in one Lord's House, because they 
are allowed in another. If the Master of the House 
will yield them, well and good. 

5. The Text Bender unto Cazsar the things that are 
Ccesar's, makes as much against Kings, as for them ; 
for it says plainly that some things are not Ccesar^s. 
But Divines make choice of it, first in Flattery, and 
then because of the other part adjoined to it Bender 

* Had is omitted in original edition. 



174 DISCOURSES, OB 

unto God the things that are God's, where they bring 
in the Church. 

6. A King outed of his Country, that takes as much 
upon him as he did at home in his own Court, is as if a 
Man on high, and I being upon the Ground, used to 
lift up my voice to him, that he might hear me, at length 
should come down, and then expects I should speak as 
loud to him as I did before. 



King of England. 

[HE King can do no wrong; that is, no Pro- 
cess can be granted against him. ^Vhat 
must be done then ; Petition him, and the 
King writes upon the Petition so it droit fait, and sends 
it to the Chancery, and then the business is heard. His 
Confessor will not tell him, he can do no wrong. 

2. There's a great deal of difference between Head 
of the Church, and Supreme Governor, as our Canons 
call the King. Conceive it thus : there is in the King- 
dom of England a College of Physicians ; the King is 
Supreme Governor of those, but not Head of them, nor 
President of the College, nor the best Physician. 

3. After the Dissolution of Abbeys, they did not 
much advance the King's Supremacy, for they only 
cared to exclude the Pope : hence have we had several 
Translations of the Bible put upon us. But now we 
must look to it, otherwise the King may put upon us 
what Eeligion he pleases. 

4. 'Twas the old way when the King of England had 




TABLE-TALK. lib 

his House, there were Canons to sing Service in his 
Chapel; so at Westminster in St. Stephen's Chapel 
where the House of Commons sits : from which Canons 
the Street called Canon-row has its Name, because 
they lived there ; and he had also the Abbot and his 
Monks, and all these the King's House. 

5. The three Estates* are the Lords Temporal, the 
Bishops are the Clergy, and the Commons, as some 
would have it. Take heed of that, for then if two 
agree, the third is involved ; but he is King of the 
three Estates. 

6. The King hath a Seal in every Court, and 
though the Great Seal be called Sigillum Anglice, the 
Great Seal of England, yet 'tis not because 'tis the 
Kingdom's Seal, and not the King's, but to distinguish 
it from Sigillum Hibernice, Sigillum Scotice. 

7. The Court of England is much altered. At a 
solemn Dancing, first you had the grave Measures, 
then the Corrantoes and the Galliards, and this is kept 
up with Ceremony ; at length to Trenchmore, and the 
Cushion-Dance, and then all the Company dance, Lord 
and Groom, Lady and Kitchen-Maid, no distinction. 
So in our Court, in Queen Elizabeth's time, Gravity 
and State were kept up. In King James's time things 



* "The three Estates." "This division of estates is coun- 
tenanced by some old statutes," says Fuller, " and was doubtless 
well agitated between High Church and Parliament. Some of 
the aged Bishops (he says) had their tongues so used to the 
language of a third estate, that more than once they run on that 
reputed rock in their speeches ; for which they were publicly 
shent, and enjoined an acknowledgment of their mistake," 




176 DISCOURSES, OB 

were pretty well. But in King Charles's time, there 
has been nothing but Trenchmore, and the Cushion- 
Dance, omnium gatherum tolly-polly, hoite come toite. 



The King. 

[IS hard to make an Accommodation be- 
tween the King and the Parliament. If 
you and I fell out about Money, you said 
I owed you Twenty Pounds, I said I owed you but Ten 
Pounds, it may be a third Party allowing me Twenty 
Marks, might make us Friends. But if I said I owed 
you Twenty Pounds in Silver, and you said I owed you 
Twenty Pounds of Diamonds, which is a Sum innu- 
merable, 'tis impossible we should ever agree. This is 
the Case. 

2. The King using the House of Commons, as he 
did Mr. Pym and his Company, that is, charging them 
with Treason, because they charged my Lord of Can- 
terbury and Sir George Batcliff ; it was just with as 
much Logic as the Boy, that would have lain with his 
Grandmother, used to his Father; you lay with my 
Mother, why should not I lie with yours ? 

3. There is not the same Reason for the King's ac- 
cusing Men of Treason, and carrying them away, as 
there is for the Houses themselves, because they ac- 
cuse one of themselves. For every one that is accused, 
is either a Peer, or a Commoner ; and he that is ac- 
cused hath his Consent going along with him ; but if 
the King accuses, there is nothing of this in it. 



TABLE-TALK. Ill 

4. The King is equally abused now as before : then 
they flattered him and made him do ill things, now 
they would force him against his Conscience. If a 
Physician should tell me, every thing I had a mind to 
was good for me, tho' in truth 'twas Poison, he abused 
me ; and he abuses me as much, that would force me 
to take something whether I will or no. 

5. The King so long as he is our King, may do 
with his Officers what he pleases ; as the Master of the 
House may turn away all his Servants, and take whom 
he please. 

6. The King's Oath is not security enough for our 
Property, for he swears to Govern according to Law ; 
now the Judges they interpret the Law, and what 
Judges can be made to do we know. 

7. The King and the Parliament now falling out, 
are just as when there is foul Play offered amongst 
Gamesters ; one snatches the other's stake ; they seize 
what they can of one another's. 'Tis not to be asked 
whether it belongs not to the King to do this or that : 
before when there was fair Play, it did. But now 
they will do what is most convenient for their own 
safety. If two fall to scuffling, one tears the other's 
Band, the other tears his ; when they were Friends 
they were quiet, and did no such thing; they let one 
another's Bands alone. 

8. The King calling his Friends from the Parlia- 
ment, because he had use of them at Oxford, is as if a 
Man should have use of a little piece of Wood, and he 
runs down into the Cellar, and takes the Spigot ; in 

M 



178 



DISCOURSES, OR 



the meantime all the Beer runs about the House ; when 
his Friends are absent, the King will be lost. 



Knights Service. 

I NIGHTS Service in earnest means nothing, 
for the Lords are bound to wait upon the 
King when he goes to War with a Foreign 
Enemy, with it may be one Man and one Horse ; and 
he that doth not, is to be rated so much as shall seem 
good to the next Parliament.* And what will that be ? 
So 'tis for a private Man, that holds of a Gentleman. 





tribution : 



Land. 

HEX Men did let their Land under foot,f 
the Tenants would fight for their Land- 
lords, so that way they had their Re- 
but now they will do nothing for them ; 



* Some of the early Kings forced their subjects of 20/. a year 
to take the order of knighthood, or exempt themselves by a fine. 
Elizabeth and James had exercised this right once. Charles at 
his coronation summoned all of 40/. a year to take the order; 
and in 1630 levied heavy fines on those who did not; raising 
100,000/. thereby. It is said the Long Parliament soon abolished 
this and so many other grievances. 

Every man is bound by his tenure to defend his Lord ; and 
both he and his Lord the King and his country, &c. See 
Homage, Coke upon Littleton. 

| Under foot, i. e. undervalue. Lord Bacon, in speaking of 
Usury, says, That were it not upon this easie borrowing upon 



TABLE-TALK. 179 

may be the first, if but a Constable bid them, that shall 
lay the Landlord by the heels ; and therefore 'tis vanity 
and folly not to take the full value. 

2. Allodium is a Law Word, contrary to Feudum* 
and it signifies Land that holds of nobody. We have 
no such Land in England. 'Tis a true Proposition ; 
all the Land in England is held, either immediately, or 
mediately of the King. 



Language. 



|/*Cj2LJ2£^ 



«51 



a living Tongue new Words may be 
fe^ added, but not to a dead Tongue, as Latin, 
J^^ky^ Greek, Hebreiv, Sfc. 

2. Latimer is the Corruption of Latiner ; it signifies 
he that interprets Latin; and though he interpreted 
French, Spanish, or Italian, he was called the King's 
Latiner, that is, the King's interpreter. 

3. If you look upon the Language spoken in the 
Saxon Time, and the Language spoken now, you will 
find the Difference to be, just as if a Man had a Cloak 
that he wore plain in Queen Elizabeth's Days, and since, 
here has put in a piece of. Red, and there a piece of 



interest, Men's necessities would draw upon them, a most sudden 
undoing ; in that they would be forced to sell their meanes (be 
it Land or Goods) farre Under foot. Essay xli. Of Usurie. 

* On the Etymology of the word Allodial, which has been 
largely discussed, there is a copious and interesting article in 
the " Tresor des Origines " of Charles Pougens under the word 
Allen. 



180 DISCOURSES, OR 

Blue, and here a piece of Green, and there a piece of 
Orange-tawny. We borrow Words from the French, 
Italian, Latin, as every Pedantic Man pleases. 

4. We have more Words than Notions, half a dozen 
words for the same thing. Sometimes we put a new 
signification to an old word, as when we call a Piece a 
Gun. The Word Gun was in use in England for an 
Engine, to cast a thing from a Man, long before there 
was any Gun-powder found out. 

5. Words must be fitted to a Man's Mouth. 'Twas 
well said of the Fellow that was to make a Speech for 
my Lord Mayor ; he desired to take measure of his 
Lordship's Mouth. 

Law. 

MAN may plead not guilty, and yet tell no 
Lie ; for by the Law, no Man is bound to 
accuse himself; so that when I say Not 
Guilty, the meaning is, as if I should say by way of 
paraphrase, I am not so guilty as to tell you ; if you 
will bring me to a Trial, and have me punished for 
this you lay to my Charge, prove it against me. 

2. Ignorance of the Law excuses no man ; not that 
all Men know the Law, but because 'tis an excuse every 
man will plead, and no Man can tell how to confute 
him. 

3. The King of Spain was outlawed in Westmin- 
ster-Hall, I being of Council against him. A Mer- 
chant had recovered Costs against him in a Suit, which 
because he could not get, we advised to have him Out- 




TABLE-TALK. 181 

lawed for not appearing, and so he was. As soon as 
Gondomar heard that, he presently sent the Money, by 
reason, if his Master had been Outlawed, he could not 
have the benefit of the Law, which would have been 
very prejudicial, there being then many suits depending 
betwixt the King of Spain, and our English Merchants.* 

4. Every Law is a Contract between the King and 
the People, and therefore to be kept. A Hundred Men 
may owe me a Hundred Pounds, as well as any one 
Man; and shall they not pay me because they are 
stronger than I? Objection. Oh but they lose all if 
they keep that Law. Answer. Let them look to the 
making of their Bargain. If I sell my Lands, and 
when I have done, one comes and tells me I have no- 
thing else to keep me. I and my Wife and Children 
must starve, if I part with my Land ; must I not there- 
fore let them have my Land, that have bought it and 
paid for it ? 

5. The Parliament may declare Law,f as well as 

* Sir John Leach, when Vice-chancellor in 1819, stated the 
law of the land to be that foreign monarchs or governments have 
no peculiar privilege in the courts of law, where they are only 
considered in the light of private individuals, and can sue and be 
sued as such. 

f The Parliament may declare. This may refer to the Lords 
sitting on appeals, Peerages, &c. or as a Court of Justice, as in 
Stafford's trial. Or to some such language as this Manifesto 
put forth by the Parliament against one of the King's in 1642. 
They declare that " the King alone could not be Judge in this 
case," (the state of the nation, &c.) "for the King judges not 
matters of law but by his courts ; nor can the Courts of Law be 
Judges of. the state of the Kingdom against the Parliament, be- 
cause they are inferior. But as the Law is determined by the 




182 DISCOURSES, OB 

any other inferior Court may, (viz.) the King's Bench. 
In that or this particular Case, the King's Bench will 
declare unto you what the Law is, but that hinds no 
body but whom the Case concerns : so the highest Court, 
the Parliament may do, but not declare Law, that is, 
make Law that was never heard of before. 



Law of Nature. 

CANNOT fancy to myself what the Law 
of Nature means, but the Law of Grod.* 
How should I know I ought not to steal, I 
ought not to commit Adultery, unless some body had 
told me so ? Surely 'tis because I have been told so ? 
'Tis not because I think I ought not to do them, nor 
because you think I ought not ; if so, our minds might 
change, whence then comes the restraint? From a 



Judges, who are of the King's Council ; so the state of the Na- 
tion is to be determined by the two Houses of Parliament, who 
are the proper Judges of the Constitution. If therefore the Lords 
and Commons in Parliament assembled declare this or the other 
matter to be Law, or according to the Constitution of the King- 
dom, it is not lawful for any single person or inferior court to 
contradict it." — Resolved : " That when the Lords and Com- 
mons, which is the supreme Law of Judicature in the Kingdom 
shall declare what the Law is — to have this not only questioned 
but contradicted, and a command that it should not be obeyed, 
is a high breach of Privilege of Parliament." — Bushworth, v. iii. 
part i. p. 698. 

* The reader need scarcely be reminded that Selden has 
written a learned treatise " De Jure Naturali et Gentium, juxta 
Disciplinani Ebraeorum." 



TABLE-TALK. 183 

higher Power, nothing else can hind. I cannot bind 
myself, for I may untie myself again ; nor an equal 
cannot hind me, for we may untie one another : it 
must be a superior Power, even God Almighty. If 
two of us make a Bargain, why should either of us 
stand to it? What need you care what you say, or 
what need I care what I say ? Certainly because there 
is something about me that tells me Fides est ser- 
vanda ; and if we after alter our Minds, and make a 
new Bargain, there's Fides servanda there too. 



Learning. 

I O Man is the wiser for his Learning : it may 
administer Matter to work in, or Objects to 
work upon ; but Wit and Wisdom are born 
with a Man. 

2. Most Mens Learning is nothing but History duly 
taken up. If I quote Thomas Aquinas for some Tenet, 
and believe it, because the School-Men say so, that is 
but History. Few men make themselves Masters of 
the things they write or speak. 

3. The Jesuits and the Lawyers of France, and the 
Low- Country-men, have engrossed all Learning. The 
rest of the World make nothing but Homilies. 

4. ? Tis observable, that in Athens where the Arts 
nourished, they were governed by a Democracy: Learn- 
ing made them think themselves as wise as any body, 
and they would govern as well as others; and they 
spake as it were by way of Contempt, that in the East, 




184 DISCOURSES, OB 

and in the North they had Kings, and why ? Because 
the most part of them followed their Business ; and 
if some one Man had made himself wiser than the rest, 
he governed them, and they willingly submitted them- 
selves to him. Aristotle makes the Observation. And 
as in Athens the Philosophers made the People know- 
ing, and therefore they thought themselves wise enough 
to govern ; so does preaching with us, and that makes 
us affect a Democracy : for upon these two Grounds 
we all would he Governors, either because we think 
ourselves as wise as the best, or because we think our- 
selves the Elect, and have the Spirit, and the rest a 
Company of Beprobates that belong to the Devil. 



Lecturers. 

lECTUEEES do in a Parish Church what 
the Friars did heretofore, get away not only 
the Affections, but the Bounty, that should 
be bestowed upon the Minister. 

2. Lecturers get a great deal of Money, because they 
preach the People tame, as a Man watches a Hawk ;* 
and then they do what they list with them. 

3. The Lectures in Black -Friars, performed by 
Officers of the Army, Tradesmen, and Ministers, is as 



* Hawks were tamed by watching. Shakespeare has several 
allusions to it : Desdemona in assuring Cassio how she will urge 
his suit to Othello, says : 

" I'll watch him tame, and talk him out of patience." 





TABLE-TALK. 185 

if a great Lord should make a Feast, and lie would 
have his Cook dress one Dish, and his Coachman ano- 
ther, his Porter a third, Sfc. 



Libels. 

THOUGH some make slight of Libels, yet 
you may see by them how the Wind sits : as 
take a Straw and throw it up into the Air, 
you shall see by that which way the Wind is, which you 
shall not do by casting up a Stone. More solid Things 
do not show the Complexion of the times so well, as 
Ballads and Libels. 

Liturgy. 

I HERE is no Church without a Liturgy, nor 
indeed can there be conveniently, as there 
is no School without a Grammar. One 
Scholar may be taught otherwise upon the Stock of his 
Acumen, but not a whole School. One or two, that 
are piously disposed, may serve themselves their own 
way, but hardly a whole Nation. 

2. To know what was generally believed in all Ages, 
the way is to consult the Liturgies, not any private 
Man's writing. As if you would know how the Church 
of England serves God, go to the Common-Prayer 
Book, consult not this nor that Man. Besides, Litur- 
gies never Compliment, nor use high Expressions. The 
Fathers oft-times speak Oratoriously. 





186 DISCOURSES, OB 



Lords in the Parliament. 

fcHE Lords giving Protections is a scorn 
upon them. A Protection means nothing 
actively, but passively ; he that is a Servant 
to Parliament Man is thereby protected. What a scorn 
it is to a Person of Honour, to put his Hand to two 
Lies at once, that such a man is my Servant, and em- 
ployed by me, when haply he never saw the man in his 
Life, nor before never heard of him. 

2. The Lords protesting* is Foolish. To protest is 
properly to save to a man's self some Right ; but to 
protest, as the Lords protest, when they their selves are 
involved, 'tis no more than if I should go into Smith- 
field, and sell my Horse, and take the money, and jet 
when I have your money, and you my Horse, I should 
protest this Horse is mine, because I love the Horse, or 
I do not know why I do protest, because my Opinion 
is contrary to the rest. Eidiculous ! When they say 
the Bishops did aDciently protest, it was only dissent- 
ing, and that in the case of the Pope. 

* " The Lords protesting." The Lords (says Clarendon) had 
an ancient privilege, very rarely used, of entering their names as 
dissentients from the vote of the majority. But now the Puritan 
Lords would often do it ; not simply entering their names, but 
summing up the matter debated, and protesting " lest mischief 
should befall the Commonwealth by this Resolution," &c. and 
this in the Records of the House, so that the Commons saw who 
was with them and who not. 




TABLE-TALK. 187 

Lords before the Parliament. 

?REAT Lords by reason of their Flatterers, 
are the first that know their own Virtues, 
and the last that know their own Vices. 
Some of them are ashamed upwards, because their An- 
cestors were too great. Others are ashamed down- 
wards, because they were too little. 

2. The Prior of St. John of Jerusalem* is said to 
be Primus Baro Anglice, the first Baron of England, 
because being last of the Spiritual Barons, he chose to 
be first of the Temporal. He was a kind of an Otter, 
a Knight half Spiritual, and half Temporal. 

3. Quest. Whether is every Baron a Baron of some 
Place? 

Ansiu. 'Tis according to his Patent; of late Years 
they have been made Baron of some Place, but an- 
ciently ilot, called only by their Surname, or the Sur- 
name of some Family, into which they have been mar- 
ried. 

4. The making of new Lords lessens all the rest. 
'Tis in the business of Lords, as it 'twas with St. JSfico- 
las's Image : the Country-Man, you know, could not 
find in his Heart to adore the new Image, made of his 
own Plum-Tree, though he had formerly worshipped 

* Being generally of noble extraction and a military person. 

" So also the Abbot of St. James, by Northampton, may be 
said to sit but on one hip in Parliament, he appears so in the 
twilight betwixt a Baron and no Baron in the summons there- 
unto." — Fuller. 




188 DISCOURSES, OB 

the old one. The Lords that are ancient we honour, 
because we know not whence they come ; but the new 
ones we slight, because we know their beginning. 

5. For the Irish Lords* to take upon them here in 
England, is as if the Cook in the Fair should come to 
my Lady Kent's Kitchen, and take upon him to roast 
the Meat there, because he is a Cook in another place. 



Marriage. 

f F all Actions of a Man's Life, his Marriage 
does least concern other people, yet of all 
Actions of our Life 'tis most meddled with 
by other People. 

2. Marriage is nothing but a Civil Contract. 'Tis 
true, 'tis an Ordinance of God : so is every other Con- 
tract ; God commands me to keep it when I have 
made it. 

3. Marriage is a desperate thing. The Frogs in 
JEsojj were extreme wise ; they had a great mind to 



* In 1626 the Lords complained to the King, that whereas 
they had heretofore, out of courtesy, as to strangers, yielded pre- 
cedency according to degree, " unto such nobles of Scotland and 
Ireland as, being in titles above them, have resorted hither ; Now 
divers of the natural born subjects of those Kingdoms resident 
here with their families, and having their chief estates among us, 
do, by reason of some late created dignities in those Kingdoms 
of Scotland and Ireland, claim precedency of the Peers of this 
Realm, which tends to the disservice of your Majesty, and to the 
great disparagement of the English Nobility, as by these reasons 
may appear, &c." — Rushworth, i. 237. 




TABLE-TALK. 189 

some Water, but they would not leap into the Well, 
because they could not get out again. 

4. We single out particulars, and apply God's Provi- 
dence to them. Thus when two are married and have 
undone one another, they cry it was God's Providence 
we should come together, when God's Providence does 
equally concur to every thing. 



Marriage of Cousin- Germans* 

JOME Men forbear to marry Cousin-Germans 
out of this kind of scruple of Conscience, 
because it was unlawful before the Eeforma- 
tion, and is still in the Church of Borne, And so by 
reason their Grand-Father, or their great Grand-Father 
did not do it, upon that old Score they think they ought 
not to do it : as some Men forbear Flesh upon Friday, 
not reflecting upon the Statute which with us makes it 
unlawful, but out of an old Score, because the Church 
of Rome forbids it, and their Fore-fathers always for- 
bore flesh upon that Day. Others forbear it out of a 
Natural Consideration, because it is observed, for Ex- 
ample, in Beasts, if two couple of a near Kind, the 



* On this subject the reader may consult the learned Disserta- 
tion of Gothofred. " De Nuptiis Consobrinorum : Ubi Lex cele- 
brandis 19 Cod. de Nuptiis illustratur Arcadioque Imperatore 
vindicatur," which is subjoined to his Edition of Philostorgius. 
Genev. 1643, 4to. Also the Works of the memorable John Hales 
of Eton. Glasgow, 1765, vol. i. p. 145. Wood's Institutes of the 
Civil Law, p. 47, and Dr. Taylor's Elements, p. 331. 



190 DISCOURSES, OE 

Breed proves not so good. The same Observation they 
make in Plants and Trees, which degenerate being 
grafted upon the same Stock. And 'tis also further 
observed, those Matches between Cousin-germans sel- 
dom prove fortunate. But for the lawfulness there is 
no Colour but Cousin-germans in England may marry 
both by the Law of God and man ; for with us we have 
reduced all the Degrees of Marriage to those in the 
Levitical-Laiv, and 'tis plain there's nothing against it. 
As for that that is said, Cousin-germans once removed 
may not Marry, and therefore, seeing* a further de- 
gree may not, 'tis presumed a nearer should not ; no 
Man can tell what it means. 



Measure of Things. 

fE measure from ourselves; and as things 
are for our use and purpose, so we approve 
them. Bring a Pear to the Table that is 
rotten, we cry it down, 'tis naught ; but bring a Medlar 
that is rotten, and 'tis a fine thing ; and yet I'll war- 
rant you the Pear thinks as well of itself as the Medlar 
does. 

2. We measure the Excellency of other Men, by 
some Excellency we conceive to be in ourselves. Nasji 
a Poet, poor enough, (as Poets us'd to be,) seeing an 
Alderman with his Gold Chain, upon his great Horse, 
by way of scorn, said to one of his Companions, " Do 

* The orig. ed. has being. 




TABLE-TALK. 191 

you see yon fellow, how goodly, how big he looks? 
Why that fellow cannot make a blank Verse." 

3. Nay we measure the goodness of God from our- 
selves ; we measure his Goodness, his Justice, his Wis- 
dom, by something we call Just, Good, or Wise in our- 
selves ; and in so doing, we judge proportionally to the 
Country-fellow in the Play, who said if he were a King, 
he would live like a Lord, and have Peas and Bacon 
every day, and a Whip that cried Slash. 



Difference of Men. 

| HE Difference of Men is very great ; you 
would scarce think them to be of the same 
Species, and yet it consists more in the Af- 
fection than in the Intellect. For as in the strength 
of Body, two Men shall be of an equal strength, yet 
one shall appear stronger than the other, because he 
exercises, and puts out his strength, the other will not 
stir nor strain himself: So 'tis in the strength of the 
Brain ; the one endeavours, and strains, and labours, 
and studies, the other sits still, and is idle, and takes 
no pains, and therefore he appears so much the in- 
ferior. 

Minister Divine. 

*HE imposition of hands upon the Minister 
when all is done, will be nothing but a de- 
signation of a Person to this or that Office 
or Employment in the Church. 'Tis a ridiculous Phrase 





192 DISCOURSES, OB 

that of the Canonists Oonferre Ordines. ? Tis Cooptare 
aliquem in Ordinem; to make a Man one of us, one of 
our Number, one of our Order. So Cicero would un- 
derstand what I said, it being a Phrase borrowed from 
the Latins, and to be understood proportion ably to what 
was amongst them. 

2. Those Words you now use in making a Minister, 
receive the Holy Ghost, were used amongst the Jews in 
making of a Lawyer ; from thence we have them, which 
is a villanous key to something, as if you would have 
some other kind of Prefecture than a Mayoralty, and 
yet keep the same Ceremony that was used in making 
the Mayor. 

3. A Priest has no such thing as an indelible Cha- 
racter: what difference do you find betwixt him and 
another Man after Ordination ? Only he is made a 
Priest, as I said, by Designation ; as a Lawyer is called 
to the Bar, then made a Sergeant. All Men that would 
get Power over others, make themselves as unlike them 
as they can ; upon the same Ground the Priests made 
themselves unlike the Laity. 

4. A Minister when he is made, is Materia prima, 
apt for any form the State will put upon him, but of 
himself he can do nothing. Like a Doctor of Law in 
the University; he hath a great deal of Law in him, but 
cannot use it till he be made some-body's Chancellor ; 
or like a Physician ; before he be received into a house, 
he can give no -body Physic ; indeed after the Master 
of the house hath given him charge of his Servants, 
then he may. Or like a Suffragan, that could dof no- 
thing but give Orders, and yet he was no Bishop. 



TABLE-TALK. 193 

5. A Minister should preach according to the Articles 
of Religion established in the Church where he is. To 
be a Civil Lawyer let a Man read Justinian, and the 
Body of the Law, to confirm his Brain to that way; but 
when he comes to practise, he must make use of it so 
far as it concerns the Law received in his own Country. 
To be a Physician let a Man read Galen and Hippo- 
crates ; but when he practises, he must apply his Medi- 
cines according to the Temper of those Men's Bodies 
with whom he lives, and have respect to the heat and 
cold of Climes, otherwise that which in Pergamus, 
where Galen lived, was Physic, in our cold Climate 
may be Poison. So to be a Divine, let him read the 
whole Body of Divinity, the Fathers and the School- 
men, but when he comes to practise, he must use it 
and apply it according to those Grounds and Articles 
of Religion that are established in the Church, and this 
with sense. 

6. There be four things a Minister should be at ; the 
Conscionary part, Ecclesiastical Story, School Divinity, 
and the Casuists. 

1. In the Conscionary part, he must read all the 
chief Fathers, both Latin and Greek wholly : St. Austin, 
St. Ambrose, St. Ghrysostom, both the Gregories, &c. 
Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Epiphanius ; 
which last have more Learning hi them than all the rest, 
and writ freely. 

2. For Ecclesiastical Story let him read Baronius, 
with the Magdeburg enses, and be his own Judge, the 
one being extremely for the Papists, the other extremely 
against them. 



194 . DISCOURSES, OB 

3. For School Divinity let him get Cavellus's Edition 
of Scotus or Mayro,* where there be Quotations that 
direct you to every Schoolman, where such and such 
Questions are handled. Without School Divinity a Di- 
vine knows nothing Logically, nor will be able to satisfy 
a rational Man out of the Pulpit. 

4. The Study of the Casuists must follow the Study 
of the Schoolmen, because the division of their Cases, 
is according to their Divinity ; otherwise he that begins 
with them will know little ; as he that begins with the 
study of the Reports and Cases in the Common Law, 
will thereby know little of the Law. Casuists may be 
of admirable use, if discreetly dealt with, though among 
them you shall have many leaves together very imper- 
tinent. A Case well decided would stick by a man, they 
would remember it whether they will or no, whereas a 
quaint Position dieth in the birth. The main thing is 
to know where to search ; for talk what they will of vast 
memories, no man will presume upon his own memory 
for any thing he means to write or speak in public. f 

7. Go and teach all Nations. This was said to all 
Christians that then were, before the distinction of Clergy 



* In the original edition it is Javellus and Mayco, but Cavellus 
was the Editor of Duns Scotus ; and there is no doubt that Fran- 
ciscus Mayronis, the renowned follower of Duns Scotus, is meant. 
He was called Doctor illuminatus et acuius, magister abstractio- 
vum. 

f See the very erudite and interesting work of Muretus, 
Yariarum Lectionem Venet. 1 559, 4to. lib. iii. cap. 1 ; De quo- 
rundam admirabilia memoria ; where he relates the well attested 
wonders achieved by a Corsican of prodigious memory who dwelt 
near him at Padua. 



TABLE-TALK. 195 

and Laity; there have been since, Men designed to 
preach only by the State, as some Men are designed to 
study the Law, others to study Physic. When the Lord's 
Supper was instituted, there were none present but the 
Disciples, shall none then but Ministers receive ? 

8. There is all the reason you should believe your 
Minister, unless you have studied Divinity as well as 
he, or more than he. 

9. 'Tis a foolish thing to say Ministers must not med- 
dle with Secular Matters, because his own profession 
will take up the whole Man : may he not eat, or drink, 
or walk, or learn to sing ? The meaning of that is, he 
must seriously attend his Calling. 

10. Ministers with the Papists, that is their Priests, 
have much respect ; with the Puritans they have much, 
and that upon the same ground ; they pretend both of 
'em to come immediately from Christ; but with the 
Protestants they have very little ; the reason whereof is, 
in the beginning of the Eeformation they were glad to 
get such to take Livings as they could procure by any 
Invitations, things of pitiful condition. The Nobility 
and Gentry, would not suffer their Sons or Kindred to 
meddle with the Church; and therefore at this day, 
when they see a Parson, they think him to be such a 
thing still, and there they will keep him, and use him 
accordingly ; if he be a Gentleman, that is singled out, 
and he is used the more respectfully. 

11. The Protestant Minister is least regarded, ap- 
pears by the old Story of the Keeper of the Clink.* 

* The Clink. " Now amongst the fruitful generation of jails 



196 DISCOURSES, OB 

He had Priests of several sorts sent unto him ; as they 
came in, he asked them who they were. Who are you ? 
to the first. I am a Priest of the Church of Eome. 
You are welcome, quoth the Keeper ; there are those 
will take Care of you. And who are you? A si- 
lenced Minister. You are welcome too ; I shall fare 
the hetter for you. And who are you ? A Minister 
of the Church of England. O God help me, quoth the 
Keeper, I shall get nothing hy you ; I am sure you 
may he, and starve, and rot, before any body will look 
after you. 

12. Methinks 'tis an ignorant thing for a Churchman, 
to call himself the Minister of Christ, because St. Paul, 
or the Apostles called themselves so. If one of them 
had a Voice from Heaven, as St. Paul had, I will grant 
he is a Minister of Christ ; I will call him so too. Must 
they take upon them as the Apostles did ? Can they 
do as the Apostles could ? The Apostles had a Mark 
to be known by, spake Tongues, cured Diseases, trod 
upon Serpents, fyc. Can they do this ? If a Gentle- 
man tells me, he will send his Man to me, and I did 
not know his Man, but he gave me this mark to know 
him by, he should bring in his Hand a rich Jewel ; if 



in London, there were thought never a better ; some less bad 
amongst them. I take the Marshalsea to be in those times the 
best for usage of prisoners. But ! the misery of God's poor 
saints in Newgate, under Alexander the Jailer (more cruel than 
his namesake was to St. Paul) in Lollard's Tower, the Clink, and 
Bonner's Coal house." — Fuller, 

The Clink was an appendage to the Bishop of Winchester's 
Palace in Southwark. 




TABLE-TALK. 197 

a Fellow came to me with a Pebble- Stone, had I any 
reason to believe he was the Gentleman's Man ? 



Money. 

|ONEY makes a Man laugh. A blind Fid- 
dler playing to a Company, and playing but 
Scurvily, the Company laughed at him ; his 
boy that led him, perceiving it, cried, Father, let us be 
gone, they do nothing but laugh at you. Hold thy 
Peace, Boy, said the Fiddler; we shall have their 
money presently, and then we will laugh at them. 

2. Euclid was beaten in Boccdline* for teaching his 
Scholars a mathematical Figure in his School, whereby 
he showed that all the Lives both of Princes and private 
Men tended to one Centre, con gentilezza, handsomely 
to get Money out of other men's pockets, and put it 
into their own. 

3. The Pope used heretofore to send the Princes of 
Christendom to fight against the Turk ; but Prince and 
Pope finely juggled together ; the Moneys were raised, 
and some Men went out to the Holy War ; but com- 
monly after they had got the Money, the Turk was 

* Boccaline, i. e. in a Story of Boccalini. He was a famous 
satirist of the 16th Century, and in the Ragguagli di Parnasso 
feigns this story of Euclid. The common tradition is, that Boc- 
calini himself was killed by the very means he supposed em- 
ployed against Euclid ; being beaten to death by four men armed 
with bags of sand. It is more probable that rumour picked up 
his own fiction ignorantly and applied it to himself. V. Biogr, 
Universelle. Ragguagli di Parnasso. 



198 DISCOURSES, OR 

pretty quiet, and the Prince and the Pope shared it be- 
tween them. 

4. In all times the Princes in England have done 
something illegal to get Money : but then came a Par- 
liament and all was well ; The People and the Prince 
kissed and were Friends, and so things were quiet for 
a while. Afterwards there was another Trick found out 
to get Money, and after they had got it, another Par- 
liament was called to set all right, tyc. but now they have 
so out-run the Constable — 



Moral Honesty. 

*|HEY that cry down moral Honesty, cry 
down that which is a great part of Eeligion, 
J|(j my Duty towards God, and my duty to- 
wards Man. What care I to see a Man run after a 
Sermon, if he cozens and cheats as soon as he comes 
home ? On the other side Morality must not be with- 
out Eeligion ; for if so, it may change, as I see conve- 
nience. Religion must govern it. He that has not 
Religion to govern his Morality, is not a dram better 
than my Mastiff-Dog ; so long as you stroke him, and 
please him, and do not pinch him, he will play with you 
as finely as may be, he is a very good moral Mastiff ; 
but if you hurt him, he will fly in your Face, and tear 
out your Throat. 




Hi*_" 




TABLE-TALK. 199 



Mortgage. 

^N case I receive a thousand Pounds, and 
mortgage as much Land as is worth two 
thousand to you ; if I do not pay the Money 
at such a day, I fail. Whether you may take my Land 
and keep it in point of Conscience ? Answer . If you had 
my Lands as security only for your Money, then you 
are not to keep it ; but if we bargained so, that if I did 
not repay your 1000L my Land should go for it ? be it 
what it will, no doubt you may with a safe Conscience 
keep it ; for in these things all the Obligation is Ser- 
vare Fidem. 



Number. 

. LL those mysterious things they observe in 
Numbers, come to nothing upon this very 
ground, because Number in itself is nothing, 
has nothing* to do with Nature, but is merely of Hu- 
man Imposition, a mere Sound. For Example, when 
I cry one o' Clock, two o' Clock, three o' Clock, that is 
but Man's division of Time : the time itself goes on, 
and it had been all one in Nature, if those Hours had 
been called nine, ten, and eleven. So when they say 
the seventh Son is Fortunate, it means nothing ; for 
if you count from the seventh backward, then the First 
is the seventh ; why is not he likewise Fortunate ? 

* Original edition, not 





200 DISCOURSES, OR 



Oaths. 

TWEAKING was another thing with the 
Jews than with us, because they might not 
pronounce the Name of the Lord Jehovah. 

2. There is no Oath scarcely, hut we swear to things 
we are ignorant of: for Example, the Oath of Supre- 
macy ; how many know how the King is King ? what are 
his Eight and Prerogative ? So how many know what 
are the Privileges of the Parliament, and the Liberty 
of the Subject, when they take the protestation ? But 
the meaning is, they will defend them when they know 
them. As if I should swear I would take part with all 
that wear Eed Eibbons in their Hats, it may be I do not 
know which Colour is Ked ; but when I do know, and see 
a Eed Eibbon in a Man's Hat, then will I take his Part. 

3. I cannot conceive how an Oath is imposed, where 
there is a Parity (viz.) in the House of Commons ; 
they are all pares inter se, only one brings a Paper, and 
shows it the rest, they look upon it, and in their own 
Sense take it. Now they are but pares to me, who am 
none of the House, for I do not acknowledge myself 
their Subject ; if I did, then no question, I was bound 
by an Oath of their imposing. 'Tis to me but reading 
a Paper in their own Sense. 

4. There is a great difference between an Assertory 
Oath, and a Promissory Oath. An Assertory Oath is 
made to a Man before God, and I must swear so as a Man 
may know what I mean : but a Promissory Oath is 
made to God only, and I am sure he knows my mean- 



TABLE-TALK. 201 

ing. So in the new Oath it runs, " whereas I believe 
in my Conscience/' Sfc. " I will assist thus and thus :" 
that whereas gives me an Outloose ; for if I do not be- 
lieve so, for aught I know I swear not at all. 

5. In a Promissory Oath, the mind I am in is a good 
Interpretation; for if there be enough happened to 
change my mind, I do not know why I should not. If 
I promise to go to Oxford to morrow, and mean it 
when I say it, and afterwards it appears to me, that 
'twill be my undoing ; will you say I have broke my 
Promise if I stay at Home ? Certainly I must not go. 

6. The Jews had this way with them, concerning a 
Promissory Oath or Vow ; if one of them had vowed a 
Vow, which afterwards appeared to him to be very pre- 
judicial by reason of something he either did not foresee, 
or did not think of, when he made his Vow ; if he made 
it known to three of his Countrymen, they had Power to 
absolve him, though he could not absolve himself; and 
that they picked out of some Words in the Text.* Per- 



* There is a tradition to the purpose among the Jews. See 
the third part of Maimonides Jad. Cliaz. lib. 6. de Separations 
Butler, who must have known Selden, as he was some time in 
the service of Lady Kent, thus refers to it : — 
The rabbins write, when any Jew 
Did make to God or man a vow, 
Which afterwards he found untoward, 
And stubborn to be kept, or too hard ; 
Any three other Jews o' th' nation 
Might free him from his obligation. 
See the loose notions of the casuistical rabbins concerning vows 
in Lightfoot's works, vol. ii. p. 708. Parker's case of the Church 
of England, 1681, p. 48. 



202 DISCOURSES, OR 

jury hath only to do with an Assertory Oath ; and no 
Man was punished for Perjury by Man's Law till Queen 
Elizabeth 9 s time ; 'twas left to God, as a sin against 
him : the Reason was, because 'twas so hard a thing to 
prove a Man perjured ; I might misunderstand him, and 
he swears as he thought. 

7. When Men ask me whether they may take an 
Oath in their own Sense, 'tis to me, as if they should 
ask whether they may go to such a place upon their 
own Legs ; I would fain know how they can go other- 
wise. 

8. If the Ministers that are in sequestred Livings 
will not take the Engagement, threaten to turn them 
out and put in the old ones, and then I'll warrant you 
they will quietly take it. A Gentleman having been 
rambling two or three Days, at length came home, and 
being in Bed with his Wife, would fain have been at 
something, that she was unwilling to, and instead of 
complying, fell to chiding him for his being abroad so 
long : Well says he, if you will not, call up Sue, (his 
Wife's Chamber-maid,) upon that she yielded pre- 
sently. 

9. Now Oaths are so frequent, they should be taken 
like Pills, swallowed whole ; if you chew them you will 
find them bitter; if you think what you swear 'twill 
hardly go down. 




TABLE-TALK. 203 



Oracles. 

jjBACLES ceased presently after Christ, as 
soon as no body believed them.* Just as 
we have no Fortune-Tellers, nor Wise- 
Men, when no body cares for thern. Sometime you 
have a Season for them, when People believe them, 
and neither of these, I conceive, wrought by the Devil. 



Opinion. 

| PINION and Affection extremely differ. I 
may affect a Woman best, but it does not 
follow I must think her the handsomest 
Woman in the World. I love Apples best of any Fruit, 
but it does not follow, I must think Apples to be the 



* Milton, in his Hymn on the Nativity, of course poetically 
follows the notion that the Oracles ceased at the coming of Christ : 

The Oracles are dumb, 

No voice or hideous hum 

Kuns through th' arched roof in words deceiving. 

Apollo from his shrine 

Can no more divine, 

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. 
And about that time their credit apparently was shaken, but 
there were other causes, as Van Dale and Fontenelle have shown, 
which eventually silenced them at a later period. It takes a long 
time to eradicate any superstitious belief among the people ; and 
the learned, even within the last century, have shown themselves 
sufficiently credulous of vaticinations, and supposed supernatural 
events. 




204 DISCOURSES, OB 

best Fruit. Opinion is something wherein I go about to 
give reason why all the World should think as I think. 
Affection is a thing wherein I look after the pleasing of 
myself.* 

2. 'Twas a good Fancy of an old Platonic : the Gods 
which are above Men, had something whereof Man 
did partake, an Intellect, Knowledge, and the Gods 
kept on their course quietly. The Beasts, which are 
below Man, had something whereof Man did partake, 
Sense and Growth, and the Beasts lived quietly in their 
way. But Man had something in him, whereof neither 
Gods nor Beasts did partake, which gave him all the 
Trouble, and made all the Confusion in the World ; 
and that is Opinion. 

3. 'Tis a foolish thing for me to be brought off from 
an Opinion, in a thing neither of us know, but are led 
only by some Cobweb-stuff; as in such a Case as this, 
Utrum Aug eli in vicem colloquantur ? if I forsake my 
side in such a case, I shew myself wonderful light, or 
infinitely complying, or flattering the other party : but 
if I be in a business of Nature, and hold an Opinion 
one way, and some Man's Experience has found out 
the contrary, I may with a safe Reputation give up my 
side. 



* Good ! This is the true difference betwixt the beautiful and 
the agreeable, which Knight and the rest of that 7r\rj9og a9eov 
have so beneficially confounded, meretricibus scilicet et Plutoni. 

Oh what an insight this whole article gives into a wise man's 
heart, who has been compelled to act with the many, as one of 
the many ! It explains Sir Thomas More's zealous Romanism. — 
Coleridge. 



TABLE-TALK. 205 

4. ? Tis a vain thing to talk of a Heretic, for a Man 
for his heart can think no otherwise than he does think.* 
In the Primitive Times there were many Opinions, 
nothing scarce hut some or other held. One of these 
Opinions heing embraced by some Prince, and received 
into his Kingdom, the rest were condemned as Heresies ; 
and his Eeligion, which was but one of the several 
Opinions, first is said to be Orthodox, and so have con- 
tinued ever since the Apostles. 

Parity.-^ 

HIS is the Juggling Trick of the Parity, 
they would have no body above them, but 
they do not tell you they would have no 
body under them. 

* Bishop Taylor in his " Liberty of Prophesying," Sect. 2. 
§ 8. says, "it is inconsistent with the goodness of God to con- 
demn those who err, where the error hath nothing of the will in 
it, who therefore cannot repent of their error, because they believe 
it true. * * * For all have a concomitant assent to the truth of 
what they believe ; and no man can at the same time believe what 
he does not believe." 

f Parity. — H. Peacham in his " Minerva Britannia, or a Garden 
of Heroycal Devices," 1612, p. 171, says, — 

" There is a sect, whome Puritans we call 
Whose pride this figure fitteth best of all. 
Not such I meane, as are of Faith sincere, 

And to doe good endeavour all they can, 
Would all the world of their religion were, 
We taxe th' aspiring factious Puritan : 
Whose Paritie,* doth worse confusion bring, 
And pride presumes to overlooke his King." 




* Paritas confusionis mater. — August. 



20a DISCOURSES, OB 



Parliament. 




LL are involved in a Parliament. There 
was a time when all Men had their Voice 
in choosing Knights. Ahout Henry the 



The public men said this was the destroying of Presbyters if 
the lesser number did not submit to the greater ; it was a sort of 
Prelacy, if it was pretended that votes ought rather to be weighed 
than counted ; Parity was the essence of their constitution, &c. — 
Burnet. 

On the 9th of February, 1640, upon a debate in the House 
respecting the Bishops, Sir Simonds D'Ewes records that " Sir 
John Strangways rose up and spake on their behalf, saying, if 
we made a Parity in the Church, we must come at last to a Parity 
in the Commonwealth ; and the Bishops were one of the three 
Estates of the Kingdom, and had a voice in the Parliament. Mr. 
Cromwell stood up next and said, he knew no reason for these 
suppositious, — he did not understand why the gentleman that 
last spoke should make an inference of Parity from the Church 
to the Commonwealth, nor that there was any necessity of the 
great revenue of Bishops. He was more convinced, touching the 
irregularity of Bishops, than ever before ; because like the Roman 
Hierarchy, they would not endure to have their condition come 
to a trial." — 31SS. Harl. 162, cited in the Edinburgh Review, 
vol. Ixxxiv, p. 90. 

" Since a Parity was first ordained by God himselfe, and that 
there needeth no Order or Degree of persons, because God is 
equall and no respecter of persons. Be it therefore ordered— 
that we have no King but Parity. 

" That every yeare there shall be the Round-heads feast cele- 
brated, a well-lung'd long-breathed Cooler shall preach a Sermon 
six houres, and his prayer two houres long, and at every Messe 
in this Feast shall be presented a goodly Dish of Turnips, because 
it is very agreeable to our Natures ; for a Turnip has a round 
head, and the Anagram of Puritan is a Tvrktp." — New Orders 
new made by a Parliament of Roundheads, &c. 4to. Lond. 1642. 



TABLE-TALK. 207 

Sixth's time the y found the inconvenience ; so one Par- 
liament made a Law, that only he that had forty Shil- 
lings per annum should give his Voice, they under 
should be excluded. They made the Law who had 
the Voice of all, as well under forty Shillings as above ; 
and thus it continues at this Day. All consent civilly 
in a Parliament; Women are involved in the Men, 
Children in those of perfect age ; those that are under 
forty Shillings a Year, in those that have forty Shil- 
lings a year, those of forty Shillings in the Knights. 

2. All things are brought to the Parliament, little 
to the Courts of Justice : just as in a room where there 
is a Banquet presented, if there be Persons of Quality 
there, the People must expect, and stay till the great 
ones have done. 

3. The Parliament flying upon several Men, and 
then letting them alone, does as a Hawk that flies a 
Covey of Partridges, and when she has flown them a 
great way, grows weary and takes a Tree ; then the 
Falconer lures her down, and takes her to his fist : on 
they go again, hei rett, up springs another Covey, 
away goes the Hawk, and as she did before, takes 
another Tree, Sfc. 

4. Dissenters in Parliament may at length come to 
a good end, though first there be a great deal of do, 
and a great deal of noise, which mad wild folks make : 
just as in brewing of Wrest-Beer, there's a great deal 
of Business in grinding the Malt, and that spoils any 
Man's clothes that comes near it : then it must be 
mashed, then comes a Fellow in and drinks of the 
Wort, and he's drunk ; then they keep a huge quarter 



208 DISCOURSES, OB 

when they carry it into the Cellar, and a twelve month 
after 'tis delicate fine Beer. 

5. It must necessarily be that our Distempers are 
worse than they were in the beginning of the Parlia- 
ment. If a Physician comes to a sick Man, he lets 
him blood, it may be scarifies him, cups him, puts him 
into a great disorder, before he makes him well; and 
if he be sent for to cure an Ague, and he finds his 
Patient hath many diseases, a Dropsy, and a Palsy, he 
applies remedies to 'em all, which makes the cure the 
longer and the dearer : this is the case. 

6. The Parliament-men are as great Princes as any 
in the World, when whatsoever they please is Privilege 
of Parliament ; no man must know the number of their 
Privileges, and whatsoever they dislike is Breach of 
Privilege. The Duke of Venice is no more than 
Speaker of the House of Commons ; but the Senate at 
Venice are not so much as our Parliament-men, nor 
have they that Power over the People, who yet exer- 
cise the greatest Tyranny that is any where. In plain 
truth, Breach of Privilege is only the actual taking 
away of a Member of the House, the rest are Offences 
against the House ; for Example, to take out Process 
against a Parliament-man, or the like. 

7. The Parliament Party, if the Law be for them, 
they call for the Law ; if it be against them, they will 
go to a Parliamentary Way ; if no Law be for them, 
then for Law again : like him that first called for 
Sack to heat him, then small Drink to cool his Sack, 
then Sack again to heat his small Drink, Sfc. 

8. The Parliament Party do not play fair play, in 




TABLE-TALK. 209 

sitting up till two of the Clock in the Morning, to vote 
something they have a mind to.* 'Tis like a crafty 
Gamester, that makes the Company drunk, then cheats 
them of their Money. Young men, and infirm men 
go away. Besides, a Man is not there to persuade 
other Men to be of his mind, but to speak his own 
heart, and if it be liked, so, if not, there's an end. 



Parson. 

| HOUGH we write Parson differently, yet 
'tis but Person; that is, the individual 
Person set apart for the Service of such a 
Church ; and 'tis in Latin Persona, and Personatus is 
a Personage. Indeed with the Canon-Lawyers, Per- 
sonatus is any Dignity or Preferment in the Church. 

2. There never was a merry World since the Fairies 
left Dancing, and the Parson left Conjuring. The 
Opinion of the latter kept Thieves in awe, and did as 
much good in a Country as a Justice of Peace. 

Patience. 

ATIENCE is the chiefest fruit of Study. 
A man that strives to make himself a dif- 
s ferent thing from other men by much 
reading, gains this chiefest good, that in all Fortunes, 

* The famous Eemonstrance was carried after sitting from 3 
p. m. to 3 a. m. which made some one say it was " the Verdict of 
a starved Jury." 






210 



DISCOURSES, OR 



he hath something to entertain and comfort himself 
withal. 




Peace. 

I ING James was pictured going easily down 
a Pair of Stairs, and upon every Step there 
was written, Peace, Peace, Peace, The 
wisest way for men in these times is to say nothing. 

2. When a Country-wench cannot get her Butter to 
come, she says, the Witch is in her Churn.* We 
have been churning for Peace a great while, and 'twill 
not come ; sure the Witch is in it. 

3. Though we had Peace, yet 'twill be a great while 
e'er things be settled. Though the Wind lie, yet after 
a Storm the Sea will work a great while. 



Penance. 

[ENANCE is only the Punishment inflicted, 
not Penitence, which is the right word : a 
Man comes not to do Penance, because he 
repents him of his Sin, but because he is compelled to 




* This is bantered by C. Cotton in his Virgil Travesty, b. iv. 

Scott in his Discovery of Witchcraft, observes, " That when the 
country people see the butter cometh not, then get they out of 
the suspected witch's house, a little butter, whereof must be made 
three balls in the name of the holy Trinity ; and so, if they be 
put into the churn, the butter will presently come, and the 
witchcraft will cease — but if you put a little sugar and soap into 
the churn among the cream, the butter will never come." Web- 
ster (Display of Witchcraft, b. 12, c. 21.) assigns natural causes 
for the butter not coining, with the method to make it come. 




TABLE-TALK. 211 

it ; he curses him, and could kill him that sends him 
thither. The old Canons wisely enjoined three years 
Penance, sometimes more, because in that time a Man 
got a habit of Virtue, and so committed that sin no 
more for which he did Penance. 



People. 

iHERE is not any thing- in the World more 
abused than this Sentence, Salus populi 
suprema Lex esto, for we apply it, as if we 
ought to forsake the known Law, when it may be most 
for the advantage of the People, when it means no 
such thing. For first, 'tis not Salus populi suprema 
Lex est, but esto ; it being one of the Laws of the 
Twelve Tables* and after divers Laws made, some for 
Punishment, some for Reward ; then follows this, Salus 
populi suprema Lex esto : That is, in all the Laws 
you make, have a special Eye to the good of the 
People ; and then what does this concern the way they 
now go ? 

2. Objection. He that makes one is greater than he 
that is made ; the People make the King, ergo, fyc. 

* It is probably a lapse of memory in Selden, or incorrectly 
related ; for this is not one of the Laws of the xii. Tables, but 
among those which Cicero has set down for the government of 
his imaginary republic. See De Legibus, lib. iii. § 8. It seems 
to have forcibly impressed itself on Ammianus Marcellinus, who 
repeats it in substance more than once ; his words are " finis enim 
justi imperii, ut sapientes docent, utilitas obedientium sestimatur 
et salus." Amm. Marcel, xxx. 8, and xxix. 3. 




212 DISCOURSES, OB 

Answer. This does not hold; for if I have 1000Z. 
per Annum, and give it you, and leave myself ne'er a 
Penny ; I made you, but when you have my Land, you 
are greater than I. The Parish makes the Constable, 
and when the Constable is made, he governs the Pa- 
rish. The Answer to all these Doubts is, Have you 
agreed so ? if you have, then it must remain till you 
have altered it. 

Pleasure. 

sLEASUEE is nothing else but the inter- 
mission of Pain, the enjoying of something 
I am in great trouble for till I have it. 

2. 'Tis a wrong way to proportion other Men's Plea- 
sures to ourselves ; 'tis like a Child's using a little Bird, 
" O poor Bird, thou shalt sleep with me ;" so lays it 
in his Bosom, and stifles it with his hot Breath : the 
Bird had rather be in the cold Air. And yet too 'tis 
the most pleasing Flattery, to like what other men 
like. 

3. 'Tis most undoubtedly true, that all Men are 
equally given to their pleasure ; only thus, one man's 
pleasure lies one way, and another's another. Plea- 
sures are all alike simply considered in themselves : he 
that hunts, or he that governs the Commonwealth, they 
both please themselves alike, only we commend that, 
whereby we ourselves receive some benefit ; as if a man 
place his delight in things that tend to the common 
good. He that takes pleasure to hear Sermons, enjoys 
himself as much as he that hears Plays ; and could he 



TABLE-TALK. 213 

that loves Plays endeavour to love Sermons, possibly he 
might bring himself to it as well as to any other Plea- 
sure. At first it may seem harsh and tedious, but 
afterwards 'twould be pleasing and delightful. So it 
falls out in that which is the great pleasure of some 
Men, Tobacco ; at first they could not abide it, and now 
they cannot be without it. 

4. Whilst you are upon Earth, enjoy the good 
Things that are here (to that end were they given), 
and be not melancholy, and wish yourself in Heaven. 
If a King should give you the keeping of a Castle, 
with all things belonging to it, Orchards, Gardens, Sfc. 
and bid you use them ; withal promise you that, after 
twenty years to remove you to the Court, and to make 
you a Privy Counsellor ; if you should neglect your 
Castle, and refuse to eat of those fruits, and sit down, 
and whine, and wish you were a Privy Counsellor, do 
you think the King would be pleased with you ? 

5. Pleasures of Meat, Drink, Clothes, $c. are for- 
bidden those that know not how to use them ; just as 
Nurses cry pah ! when they see a Knife in a Child's 
Hand ; they will never say any thing to a Man. 



Philosophy. 

*HEN Men comfort themselves with Philo- 
sophy, 'tis not because they have got two 
or three Sentences, but because they have 
digested those Sentences and made them their own : so 
upon the matter, Philosophy is nothing but Discretion. 





214 DISCOURSES, OR 

Poetry. 

YID was not only a fine Poet, but, as a man 
may speak, a great Canon Lawyer, as ap- 
pears in his Fasti, where we have more of 

the Festivals of the old Romans than any where else : 

'tis pity the rest are lost. 

2. There is no reason Plays should he in Verse, 
either in Blank or Rhyme ; only the Poet has to say for 
himself, that he makes something like that, which some- 
body made before him. The old Poets had no other 
reason but this, their Yerse was sung to Music ; other- 
wise it had been a senseless thing to have fettered up 
themselves.* 

3. I never converted but two, the one was Mr. Cra- 
shaw, from writing against Plays, by telling him a way 
how to understand that Place of putting on Woman's 
Apparel, which has nothing to do in the business, as 
neither has it, that the Fathers speak against Plays in 
their Time, with reason enough, for they had real Ido- 
latries mixed with their Plays, having three Altars per- 
petually upon the Stage. The other was a Doctor of 
Divinity, from preaching against Painting ; which sim- 
ply in itself is no more hurtful, than putting on my 

* No one man can know all things ; even Selden here talks 
ignorantly. Yerse is in itself a music, and the natural symbol of 
that union of passion with thought and pleasure, which consti- 
tutes the essence of all poetry, as contradistinguished from his- 
tory civil or natural. To Pope's Essay on Man, — in short to 
whatever is mere metrical good sense and wit, the remark ap- 
plies. — Coleridge. 



TABLE-TALK. 215 

Clothes, or doing anything to make my self like other 
folks, that I may not he odious nor offensive to the Com- 
pany. Indeed if I do it with an ill Intention, it alters 
the Case ; so, if I put on my Gloves with an intention 
to do a mischief, I am a Villain. 

4. 'Tis a fine thing for Children to learn to make 
Verse ; hut when they come to he Men, they must speak 
like other Men, or else they will he laughed at. 'Tis 
ridiculous to speak, or write, or preach in Verse. As 
'tis good to learn to dance, a man may learn his Leg, 
learn to go handsomely ; hut 'tis ridiculous for him to 
dance, when he should go. 

5. 'Tis ridiculous for a Lord to print Verses; 'tis well 
enough to make them to please himself, but to make 
them public, is foolish. If a Man in a private Chamber 
twirls his Band-strings, or plays with a Bush to please 
himself, 'tis well enough ; but if he should go into Fleet- 
street, and sit upon a Stall, and twirl a Band- string, or 
play with a Eush, then all the Boys in the Street would 
laugh at him. 

6. Verse proves nothing but the quantity of Syllables ; 
they are not meant for Logic* 



* True ; they, that is, verses, are not logic ; but they are, or 
ought to be, the envoys and representatives of that vital passion, 
which is the practical cement of logic ; and without which logic 
must remain inert.— Coleridge. 




216 DISCOURSES, OB 

Pope. 

POPE'S Bull and a Pope's Brief differ 
very much ; as with us the Great Seal and 
the Privy Seal. The Bull being the highest 
Authority the Pope* can give, the Brief is of less. The 
Bull has a Leaden Seal upon silk, hanging upon the 
Instrument ; the Brief has sub Annulo Piscatoris upon 
the side. 

2. He was a wise Pope, that when one that used to 
be merry with him, before he was advanced to the 
Popedom, refrained afterwards to come at him, (pre- 
suming he was busy in governing the Christian World,) 
the Pope sends for him, bids him come again, and says 
he, we will be merry as we. were before ; for thou little 
thinkest what a little Foolery governs the whole World. 

3. The Pope in sending Belies to Princes, does as 
Wenches do by their Wassails at New-years tide; 
they present you with a Cup, and you must drink of a 
slabby stuff; but the meaning is, you must give them 
Moneys, ten times more than it is worth. 

4. The Pope is Infallible, where he hath power to 
command ; that is, where he must be obeyed ; so is every 
Supreme Power and Prince. They that stretch his 
Infallibility further, do they know not what. 

5. When a Protestant and a Papist dispute, they 
talk like two Madmen, because they do not agree upon 
their Principles. The one way is to destroy the Pope's 

* Orig. edit. King. 



TABLE-TALK. 217 

Power, for if he hath Power to command me, 'tis not 
my alleging Reasons to the contrary can keep me from 
obeying : for Example, if a Constable command me to 
wear a green Suit to-morrow, and has Power to make 
me, 'tis not my alleging a hundred Reasons of the 
Folly of it, can excuse me from doing it. 

6. There was a Time when the Pope had Power 
here in England, and there was excellent use made of 
it; for 'twas only to serve turns, as might be mani- 
fested out of the Records of the Kingdom, which Di- 
vines know little of. If the King did not like what 
the Pope would have, he would forbid the Pope's Le- 
gate to land upon his ground. So that the Power was 
truly then in the King, though suffered in the Pope. 
But now the Temporal and the Spiritual Power (Spi- 
ritual so call'd, because ordained to a Spiritual End) 
spring both from one Eountain, they are like to twist 
that. 

7. The Protestants in France bear Office in the 
State, because though their Religion be different, yet 
they acknowledge no other King but the King of 
France. The Papists in England they must have a 
King of their own, a Pope, that must do something in 
our Kingdom ; therefore there is no reason they should 
enjoy the same Privileges. 

8. Amsterdam admits of all Religions but Papists, 
and 'tis upon the same Account. The Papists where'er 
they live, have another King at Rome ; all other Re- 
ligions are subject to the present State, and have no 
Prince elsewhere. 

9. The Papists call our Religion a Parliamentary 



218 DISCOURSES, OR 

Religion ; but there was once, I am sure, a Parlia- 
mentary Pope ; Pope Urban was made Pope in Eng- 
land by Act of Parliament, against Pope Clement, 
The Act is not in the Book of Statutes, either because 
he that compiled the Book would not have the Name 
of the Pope there, or else he would not let it appear 
that they meddled with any such thing ; but 'tis upon 
the Polls. 

10. "When our Clergy preach against the Pope and 
the Church of Rome, they preach against themselves ; 
and crying down their Pride, their Power and their 
Riches, have made themselves poor and contemptible 
enough ; they did it at* first to please their Prince, not 
considering what would follow. Just as if a man were 
to go a journey, and seeing, at his first setting out, the 
way clean and fair, ventures forth in his Slippers, not 
considering the Dirt and the Sloughs are a little further 
off, or how suddenly the Weather may change. 

Popery. 

\ HE demanding a Noble, for a dead body 
passing through a Town, came from hence 
in time of Popery, they earned the dead 
Body into the Church, where the Priest said Dirges ; 
and twenty Dirges at four Pence a piece, comes to a 
Noble ; but now it is forbidden by an Order from my 
Lord Marshal ; the Heralds carry his Warrant about 
them. 

* The original edition misprints dedicate for did it at. 





TABLE-TALK. 219 

2. We charge the Prelatical Clergy with Popery, to 
make them odious, though we know they are guilty of 
no such thing : just as heretofore they called Images 
Mammets, and the Adoration of Images Mammetry, 
that is, Mahomet and Mahometry ; odious names, when 
all the World knows the Turks are forbidden Images 
by their Keligion. 

Power, State. 

HERE is no stretching of Power. ? Tis a 
good rule, Eat within your Stomach, act 
within your Commission. 

2. They that govern most make least noise. You 
see when they row in a Barge, they that do drudgery- 
work, slash, and puff, and sweat ; but he that governs, 
sits quietly at the Stern, and scarce is seen to stir. 

3. Syllables govern the World. 

4. All power is of God, means no more than Fides 
est servanda. When St. Paul said this, the People 
had made Nero Emperor. They agree, he to com- 
mand, they to obey. Then God's* comes in, 

and casts a hook upon them, keep your Faith : then 
comes in, all Power is of God. Never King dropped 
out of the Clouds. God did not make a new Emperor, 
as the King makes a Justice of Peace. 

* Some word seems to be wanting here, though there is no 
space for it in the first edition. The second edition reads, God 
comes, &c. Perhaps we should read, "God's ordinance"? See 
Richard Baxter's notes to his Paraphrase on the N. T. Romans, 
xiii. 



220 DISCOURSES, OR 

5. Christ himself was a great observer of the Civil 
power, and did many things only justifiable, because 
the State required it, which were things merely Tem- 
porary, for the time that State stood. But Divines make 
use of them to gain Power to themselves ; as for Ex- 
ample that of Die EcelesicB, tell the Church ; there was 
then a Sanhedrim, a Court to tell it to, and therefore 
they would have it so now. 

6. Divines ought to do no more than what the State 
permits. Before the State became Christian, they made 
their own Laws, and those that did not observe them, 
they Excommunicated, [naughty men] they suffered 
them to come no more amongst them. But if they 
would come amongst them, how could they hinder 
them ? By what Law ? By what Power ? they were 
still subject to the State, which was Heathen. Xo thing 
better expresses the Condition of Christians in those 
times, than one of the meetings you have in London, 
of Men of the same County, of Sussex-^Slen, of Bed- 
fordshire-lSLen ; they appoint their Meeting, and they 
agree, and make Laws amongst themselves, [He that is 
not there shall jpay double, &c] and if any one mis-be- 
have himself, the} 7 shut him out of their Company : 
but can they recover a Forfeiture made concerning 
their Meeting by any Law ? Have they any power to 
compel one to pay? But afterwards when the State 
became Christian, all the Power was in them, and they 
gave the Church as much, or as little as they pleased ; 
and took away when they pleased, and added what they 
pleased. 

7. The Church is not only subject to the Civil Power 



TABLE-TALK. 221 

with us that are Protestants, but also in Spain : if the 
Church does Excommunicate a Man for what it should 
not, the Civil Power will take him out of their Hands. 
So in Frame, the Bishop of Anglers altered something 
in the Breviary ; they complained to the Parliament 
at Paris, that made him alter it again, with a [comme 
abuse."]* 

8. The Parliament of England has no Arbitrary 
Power in point of Judicature, but in point of making 
Law only. 

9. If the Prince be servus natura, of a servile base 
Spirit, and the Subjects liber i, Free and Ingenuous, 
ofttimes they depose their Prince, and govern them- 
selves. On the contrary, if the People be Servi Na- 
tura, and some one amongst them of a Free and In- 
genuous Spirit, he makes himself King of the rest ; 
and this is the Cause of all changes in State : Com- 
monwealths into Monarchies, and Monarchies into 
Common-wealths. 

10. In a troubled State we must do as in foul Wea- 
ther upon the Thames, not think to cut directly through, 
so the Boat may be quickly full of water, but rise and 
fall as the Waves do, give as much as conveniently we 
can. 



* Un appel comme d'abus is an appeal to the civil from the 
ecclesiastical court, when the latter is supposed to have exceeded 
its power. 




222 DISCOURSES, OR 

Prayer. 

^F I were a Minister, I should think myself 
most in my Office, reading of Prayers, and 
dispensing the Sacraments ; and 'tis ill 
done to put one to officiate in the Church, whose Per- 
son is contemptible out of it. Should a great Lady, 
that was invited to be a Gossip, in her place send her 
Kitchen-Maid, 'twould be ill taken ; yet she is a Wo- 
man as well as she ; let her send her Woman at least. 

2. You shall pray, is the right way, because ac- 
cording as the Church is settled, no Man may make a 
Prayer in public of his own head. 

3. 'Tis not the Original Common-prayer-book. 
Why, show me an original Bible, or an original Magna 
Chart a. 

4. Admit the Preacher prays by the Spirit, yet that 
very Prayer is Common-prayer to the People; they 
are tied as much to his Words, as in saying, Almighty 
and most merciful Father. Is it then unlawful in the 
Minister, but not unlawful in the People ? 

5. There were some Mathematicians, that could with 
one fetch of their Pen make an exact Circle, and with 
the next touch, point out the Centre; is it therefore 
reasonable to banish all use of the Compasses? Set 
Forms are a pair of Compasses. 

6. God luith given gifts unto Men. General Texts 
prove nothing: let him show me John, William or 
Thomas in the Text, and then I will believe him. If a 
man hath a voluble Tongue, we say, he hath the gift of 



TABLE-TALK. 223 

prayer. His gift is to pray long, that I see ; but does 
he pray better ? 

7. We take care what we speak to Men, but to God 
we may say any thing. 

8. The people must not think a thought towards 
God, but as their Pastors will put it into their Mouths ; 
they will make right Sheep of us. 

9. The English Priests would do that in English, 
which the Romish do in Latin, keep the people in Ig- 
norance; but some of the people outdo them at their 
own Game. 

10. Prayer should be short, without giving God Al- 
mighty Reasons why he should grant this, or that ; he 
knows best what is Good for us. If your Boy should 
ask you a Suit of Clothes, and give you Eeasons, 
" otherwise he cannot wait upon you, he cannot go 
abroad but he will discredit you/' would you endure 
it ? You know it better than he ; let him ask a Suit 
of Clothes. 

11. If a Servant that has been fed with good Beef, 
goes into that part of England where Salmon is plenty, 
at first he is pleased with his Salmon, and despises his 
Beef, but after he has been there a while, he grows 
weary of his Salmon, and wishes for his good Beef 
again. We have a while been much taken with this 
praying by the Spirit ; but in time we may grow weary 
of it, and wish for our Common-Prayer. 

12. 'Tis hoped we may be cured of our extemporary 

i Prayers, the same way the Grocer's Boy is cured of 
his eating Plums, when we have had our Belly full of 
them. 




224 DISCOURSES, OR 

Preaching. 

wOTHDsTG is more mistaken than that 
Speech, Preach the Gospel : for 'tis not to 
make long' Harangues, as they do now-a- 
days, but to tell the News of Christ's coming into the 
World ; and when that is done, or where 'tis known 
already, the Preacher's Work is done. 

2. Preaching in the first sense of the word ceased as 
soon as ever the Gospel was written. 

3. When the Preacher says, this is the Meaning of 
the Holy Ghost in such a place, in sense he can mean 
no more than this ; that is, I by studying of the place, 
by comparing one place with another, by weighing what 
goes before, and what comes after, think this is the 
Meaning of the Holy Ghost ; and for shortness of Ex- 
pression I say, the Holy Ghost says thus, or this is the 
Meaning of the Spirit of God. So the Judge speaks 
of the King's Proclamation, this is the Intention of the 
King; not that the King had declared his Intention 
any other way to the Judge, but the Judge examining 
the Contents of the Proclamation, gathers by the pur- 
port of the Words the King's Intention ; and then for 
shortness of expression says, this is the King's In- 
tention. 

4. Nothing is Text but what was spoken in the 
Bible, and meant there for Person and Place ; the rest 
is Application, which a discreet Man may do well ; but 
'tis his Scripture, not the Holy Ghost. 

5. Preaching by the Spirit (as they call it) is most 



TABLE-TALK. 225 

esteemed by the Common-people, because they cannot 
abide Art or Learning, which they have not been bred 
up in. Just as in the business of Fencing, if one 
Country Fellow amongst the rest, has been at the 
School, the rest will under-value his Skill, or tell him 
he wants Valour : You come with your School-Tricks; 
there's Dick Butcher has ten times more Mettle in him: 
so they say to the Preachers, You come with your 
School-Learning : There's such a one has the Spirit. 

6. The Tone in preaching does much in working 
upon the people's Affections. If a Man should make 
Love in an ordinary Tone, his Mistress would not re- 
gard him ; and therefore he must whine. If a Man 
should cry Fire, or Murder, in an ordinary Voice, no 
body would come out to help him. 

7. Preachers will bring any thing into the Text. The 
young Masters of Arts preached against Non-Resi- 
dency in the University ; whereupon the Heads made 
an Order, that no Man should meddle with any thing 
but what was in the Text. The next Day one preached . 
upon these Words, Abraham begat Isaac: when he 
had gone a good way, at last he observed, that Abraham 
was resident; for if he had been Non -Resident, he 
could never have begot Isaac ; and so fell foul upon 
the Non-Kesidents.* 

8. I could never tell what often preaching meant, 

* In 1631, they began to preach against Laud's innovation, at 
Oxford. Yea, their very texts gave offence ; one preaching on 
Numbers xiv. 6. " Let us make a Captain and return into 
Egypt." Another on Kings xiii. 2. " And he cried against 
the Altar in the word of the Lord, and said, ! Altar, Altar." 
P 



226 DISCOURSES, OB 

after a Church is settled, and we know what is to be 
done ; 'tis just as if a Husband-man should once tell 
his Servants what they are to do, when to sow, when to 
reap, and afterwards one should come and tell them 
twice or thrice a Day what they know already. You 
must sow your Wheat in October, you must reap your 
Wheat in August, Sfc. 

9. The main Argument why they would have two 
Sermons a Day, is, because they have two Meals a 
Day ; the Soul must be fed as well as the Body. But 
I may as well argue, I ought to have two Noses be- 
cause I have two Eyes, or two Mouths because I have 
two Ears. What have Meals and Sermons to do one 
with another? 

10. The Things between God and Man are but a 
few, and those, forsooth, we must be told often of; but 
things between Man and Man are many ; those I hear 
of not above twice a Year, at the Assizes, or once a 
Quarter at the Sessions ; but few come then ; nor does 
the Minister exhort the People to go at these times to 
learn their Duty towards their Neighbour. Often 

. preaching is sure to keep the Minister in Countenance, 
that he may have something to do. 

11. In preaching they say more to raise Men to love 
Virtue than Men can possibly perform, to make them 
do their best ; as if you would teach a Man to throw 
the Bar, to make him put out his strength, you bid 
him throw further than it is possible for him, or any 
Man else : throw over yonder House. 

12. In preaching they do by Men as Writers of Ro- 
mances do by their chief Knights, bring them into 



TABLE-TALK. 227 

many Dangers, but still fetch them off : so they put 
Men in fear of Hell, but at last bring them to Heaven. 

13. Preachers say, do as I say, not as I do. But 
if a Physician had the same Disease upon him that I 
have, and he should bid me do one thing, and he do 
quite another, could I believe him ? 

14. Preaching the same Sermon to all sorts of Peo- 
ple, is, as if a School-Master should read the same 
Lesson to his several Forms : if he reads, Amo, amas, 
amavi, the highest Forms Laugh at him ; the younger 
Boys admire him ; so His in preaching to a mixed Au- 
ditory. Objection. But it cannot be otherwise ; the 
Parish cannot be divided into several Forms : what 
must the Preacher then do in Discretion? Answer. 
Why then let him use some expressions by which this 
or that condition of people may know such Doctrine 
does more especially concern them ; it being so deli- 
vered that the wisest may be content to hear. For if 
he delivers it altogether, and leaves it to them to single 
out what belongs to themselves (which is the usual way) 
'tis as if a Man would bestow Gifts upon Children of 
several Ages, Two Years old, Four Years old, Ten 
Years old, Sfc. and there he brings Tops, Pins, Points, 
Ribands, and casts them all in a Heap together upon 
a Table before them ; though the Boy of Ten Years 
old knows how to choose his Top, yet the Child of Two 
Years old, that should have a Riband, takes a Pin, 
and the Pin e'er he be aware pricks his Fingers, and 
then all's out of order, Sfc. Preaching for the most 
part is the glory of the Preacher, to show himself a fine 
man. Catechising would do much better. 



228 DISCOURSES, OB 

15. Use the best Arguments to persuade, though 
but few understand ; for the Ignorant will sooner believe 
the judicious of the Parish, than the Preacher himself ; 
and they teach when they dissipate what he has said, 
and believe it the sooner, confirmed by men of their 
own side. For betwixt the Laity and the Clergy there 
is, as it were, a continual driving of a bargain ; some- 
thing the Clergy would still have us be at, and there- 
fore many things are heard from the Preacher with 
suspicion. They are afraid of some ends, which are 
easily assented to, when they have it from some of 
themselves. 'Tis with a Sermon as 'tis with a Play; 
many come to see it, which do not understand it ; and 
yet hearing it cried up by one, whose judgment they 
cast themselves upon, and of power with them, they 
swear and will die in it, that 'tis a very good Play, 
which they would not have done if the Priest himself 
had told them so. As in a great School, 'tis [not] * 
the Master that teaches all ; the Monitor does a great 
deal of work ; it may be the Boys are afraid to see the 
Master : so in a Parish 'tis not the Minister does all ; 
the greater Neighbour teaches the lesser, the Master 
of the House teaches his Servant, Sfc. 

16. First in your Sermons use your Logic, and then 
your Rhetoric. Rhetoric without Logic is like a Tree 
with Leaves and Blossoms, but no Root ; yet I confess 
more are taken with Rhetoric than Logic, because they 
are catched with a free Expression, when they under- 
stand not Reason. Logic must be natural, or it is 

* Not is omitted in the orig. ed. 



TABLE-TALK. 229 

worth nothing at all; your Ehetoric Figures may be 
learned. That Rhetoric is best which is most season- 
able and most catching. An instance we have in that 
old blunt Commander at Cadiz, who showed himself a 
good Orator ; being to say something to his Soldiers, 
which he was not used to do, he made them a Speech 
to this purpose : What a shame will it be, you English- 
men, that feed upon good Beef and Brewess, to let 
those Rascally Spaniards beat you that eat nothing but 
Oranges and Lemons ; and so put more Courage into 
his Men than he could have done with a more learned 
Oration. Ehetoric is very good, or stark naught : there's 
no Medium in Ehetoric. If I am not fully persuaded 
I laugh at the Orator. 

17. 'Tis good to preach the same thing again ; for 
that's the way to have it learned. You see a Bird by 
often whistling to learn a Tune, and a Month after re- 
cord it to herself. 

18. 'Tis a hard Case a Minister should be turned 
out of his Living for something they inform he should 
say in his Pulpit. We can no more know what a 
Minister said in his Sermon by two or three words 
picked out of it, than we can tell what Tune a Musi- 
cian played last upon the Lute, by two or three single 
Notes. 




230 DISCOURSES, OB 

Predestination. 

[HEY that talk nothing but Predestination, 
and will not proceed in the way of Heaven 
till they be satisfied in that point, do, as 
a Man that would not come to London, unless at his 
first step he might set his foot upon the top of PauVs. 

2. For a young Divine to begin in his Pulpit with 
Predestination, is as if a Man were coming into London, 
and at his first Step would think to set his Foot, Sfc. 

3. Predestination is a point inaccessible, out of our 
reach; we can make no notion of it, 'tis so Ml of 
intricacy, so full of contradiction ; 'tis in good earnest, 
as we state it, half a Dozen Bulls one upon another. 

4. Doctor Prideaux, in his Lectures, several Days 
used Arguments to prove Predestination ; at last tells 
his Auditory they are damned that do not believe it ; 
doing herein just like School-Boys, when one of them 
has got an Apple, or something the rest have a mind to, 
they use all the Arguments they can to get some of it 
from him : / gave you some t'other Day ; You shall 
have some with me another time : When they cannot 
prevail, they tell him he's a Jackanapes, a Rogue and 
a Rascal. 

Preferment. 

*HEN you would have a Child go to such a 
place, and you find him unwilling, you tell 
him he shall ride a Cock-horse, and then 
he will go presently ; so do those that govern the State, 




TABLE-TALK. 231 

deal by men, to work them to their ends ; they tell 
them they shall he advanced to such or such a place, 
and they will do any thing they would have them. 

2. A great Place strangely qualifies. John Read, 
Groom of the Chamber to my Lord of Kent, was in 
the right.* Attorney Noy being dead, some were 
saying, how would the King do for a fit Man ? Why, 
any Man (says John Read) may execute the Place. 
I warrant (says my Lord) thou think'st thou under- 
stands enough to perform it. Yes, quoth John, Let 
the King make me Attorney, and I would fain see 
that Man, that durst tell me, there's any thing I under- 
stand not. 

3. When the Pageants are a coming there's a great 
thrusting and a riding upon one another's Backs, to 
look out at the Window : stay a little and they will 
come just to you, you may see them quietly. So 'tis 
when a new Statesman or Officer is chosen; there's 
great expectation and listening who it should be ; stay 
a while, and you may know quietly. 

4. Missing Preferment makes the Presbyters fall 
foul upon the Bishops : Men that are in hopes and in 
the way of rising, keep in the Channel, but they that 
have none, seek new ways : 'Tis so amongst the Law- 
yers ; he that hath the Judge's Ear, will be very ob- 
servant of the way of the Court ; but he that hath no 
regard will be flying out. 

5. My Lord Digbyf having spoken something in 

* This sentence is awkwardly transposed in the orig. ed. 
t Lord Digby. He spoke against Strafford's attainder, and 
was called up to the Lords, June 10, 1641. 



232 DISCOURSES, OB 

the House of Commons, for which they would have 
questioned him, was presently called to the upper 
House. He did hy the Parliament as an Ape when 
he has done some waggery ; his Master spies him, and 
he looks for his Whip, hut before he can come at him, 
whip says he to the top of the House. 

6. Some of the Parliament were discontented, that 
they wanted places at Court, which others had got; 
but when they had them once, then they were quiet. 
Just as at a Christening, some that get no Sugar- 
plums, when the rest have, mutter and grumble ; pre- 
sently the Wench comes again with her Basket of 
Sugar-plums, and then they catch and scramble, and 
when they have got them, you hear no more of them. 

Prcemunire, 

\ HEKE can be no Praemunire. A Praemu- 
nire (so called from the word Praemunire* 
facias) was when a Man laid an Action in 
an Ecclesiastical Court, for which he could have no 

* Praemunire, more properly Prcemonere. To incur a praemu- 
nire, according to the Stat. 16 Rich. II. c. 15, was to be out of 
the King's protection, to forfeit Lands and goods and to be im- 
prisoned. See Fuller's Church History, p. 148. Coke's 12th 
Report, p. 37. "A Pr&munire is a writ issued out of the King's 
Bench against one who hath procured any Bull or like process 
of the Pope from Rome, or elsewhere, for any Ecclesiastical place 
or preferment within this realm ; or doth sue in any foreign Ec- 
clesiastical court to defeat or impeach any judgment given in 
the King's Court. — The writ was much in use during the time 
the Bishop of Rome's authority was in credit in this land, as 





TABLE-TALK. 233 

remedy in any of the King's Courts, that is, in the 
Courts of Common Law, by reason the Ecclesiastical 
Courts before Henry the Eighth were subordinate to 
the Pope, and so it was contra coronam et dignitatem 
Regis; but now the Ecclesiastical Courts are equally 
subordinate to the King. Therefore it cannot be contra 
coronam et dignitatem Regis, and so no Praemunire. 



Prerogative. 

^BEKOGATIVE is something that can be 
told what it is, not something that has no 
Name : just as you see the Archbishop has 
his Prerogative Court, but we know what is done in 
that Court. So the King's Prerogative is not his will, 
or, what Divines make it, a power, to do what he lists. 
2. The King's Prerogative, that is, the King's Law. 
For example, if you ask whether a Patron may present 
to a Living after six Months by Law ? I answer no. 
If you ask whether the King may ? I answer he may 
by his Prerogative, that is by the Law that concerns 
him in that case. 

there were there two principal authorities — the Spiritual in the 
Pope, and the Temporal in the King. But since the foreign au- 
thority in Spiritual matters is abolished, and either jurisdiction 
is to be agnized to be settled wholly and only in the Prince of 
this land, sundry wise men are of opinion that there can be no 
Prcemunire by the statutes at this day against any man exercising 
any subordinate jurisdiction under the King." See Sir Thomas 
Ridley's "View of the Civile and Ecclesiasticall Law." Oxford, 
1676, p. 153, &c. Barrington's Observations on the more antient 
Statutes, 1762, 4to. p. 251. 




234 DISCOURSES, OR 

Presbytery. 

\ HEY that would bring in a new Govern- 
ment, would very fain persuade us, they 
meet it in Antiquity. Thus they interpret 
Presbyters, when they meet the word in the Fathers. 
Other professions likewise pretend to Antiquity. The 
Alchymist will find his Art in Virgil's Aureus ramus, 
and he that delights in Optics will find them in Tacitus. 
When Cazsar came into England they would persuade 
us, they had Perspective-Glasses, by which he could 
discover what they were doing upon the Land, because 
it is said, Positis Speculis : the meaning is, His Watch 
or his Sentinel discovered this, and this, unto him. 

2. Presbyters have the greatest power of any Clergy 
in the World, and gull the Laity most. For example ; 
admit there be twelve Laymen to six Presbyters, the 
six shall govern the rest as they please. First because 
they are constant, and the others come in like Church- 
wardens in their turns, which is a huge advantage. 
Men will give way to them who have been in place be- 
fore them. Next, the Laymen have other professions 
to follow : the Presbyters make it their sole Business ; 
and besides, too, they learn and study the Art of per- 
suading : some of Geneva have confessed as much. 

3. The Presbyter with his Elders about him, is like 
a young Tree fenced about with two, or three, or four 
Stakes ; the Stakes defend it, and hold it up, but the 
Tree only prospers and flourishes : it may be some 
Willow Stake may bear a Leaf or two, but it comes to 



TABLE-TALK. 235 

nothing. Lay-Elders are Stakes, the Presbyter the 
Tree that flourishes. 

4. When the Queries were sent to the Assembly 
concerning the Jus Divinum of Presbytery,* their ask- 
ing time to answer them, was a Satire upon themselves; 
for if it were to be seen in the Text, they might quickly 
turn to the place, and show us it. Their delaying to 
answer makes us think there's no such thing there. 
They do just as you have seen a fellow do at a Tavern 
Reckoning : when he should come to pay his Reckon- 
ing, he puts his Hands into his Pockets, and keeps a 
grabbling and a fumbling, and shaking, at last tells 
you he has left his Money at home ; when all the 
Company knew at first, he had no Money there ; for 
every Man can quickly find his own Money. 



* The Assembly met with many difficulties ; some complain- 
ing of Mr. Selden, that advantaged by his skill in antiquity, 
common law, and the Oriental tongues, he employed them rather 
to pose than profit, perplex than inform the members thereof — 
in the 14 queries he proposed ; whose intent therein was to humble 
the Jure-divino-ship of Presbytery ; which though hinted and 
held forth, is not so made out in Scripture, but, being too scant 
on many occasions, it must be pieced with prudential additions. 
These queries being sent from Parliament to the Assembly, it 
was ordered that in the answers proof from Scripture be set down 
with the several texts at large, in the express words of the same, 
&c. On receiving these queries the Assembly is in great per- 
turbation, appoints a solemn fast, and a committee to consider 
the answers. 



236 DISCOURSES, OR 



Priests of Rome. 



| HE Eeason of the Statute against Priests, 
was this : In the beginning of Queen 
\kk§k Elizabeth there was a Statute made, that 
he that drew Men from their civil Obedience was a 
Traitor. It happened this was done in privacies and 
confessions, when there could be no proof; therefore 
they made another Act, that for a Priest to be in Eng- 
land was Treason, because they presumed that [it] was 
his business to fetch men off from their Obedience. 

2. When Queen Elizabeth died, and King James 
came in, an Irish Priest does thus Express it : Eliza- 
betha in orcum detrusa, successit Jacobus, alter Hcere- 
ticus. You will ask why they did use such Language 
in their Church. Answer. "Why does the Nurse tell 
the Child of Raw-head and Bloody-bones, to keep it in 
awe? 

3. The Queen Mother and Count Rosset are to the 
Priests and Jesuits like the Honey-pot to the Flies.* 

4. The Priests of Rome aim but at two Things, to 
get Power from the King, and Money from the 
Subject. 

5. When the Priests come into a Family, they do 
as a Man that would set fire on a House ; he does not 
put fire to the Brick-wall, but thrusts it into the 



* The Queen Mother and Rosset. Mary de Medicis got out of 
England at last by the Parliament, at 10,000/. expense, Aug. 
1641. 




TABLE-TALK. 237 

Thatch. They work upon the Women and let the 
Men alone.* 

6. For a Priest to turn a man when he lies a dying, 
is just like one that hath a long time solicited a woman, 
and cannot obtain his end ; at length makes her drunk, 
and so lies with her. 



Prophecies. 

) BEAMS and Prophecies do thus much good ; 
they make a man go on with boldness and 
courage, upon a Danger or a Mistress : if 
he obtains, he attributes much to them ; if he mis- 
carries, he thinks no more of them, or is no more 
thought of himself. 



Proverbs. 

[HE Proverbs of several Nations were much 
studied by Bishop Andrews, and the rea- 
son he gave was, Because by them he knew 
the minds of several Nations, which is a brave thing ; 
as we count him a wise man, that knows the minds and 
insides of men, which is done by knowing what is ha- 
bitual to them. Proverbs are habitual to a Nation, 
being transmitted from Father to Son. 



* See Michelet's late remarkable ^publication, "Priests, Women, 
and Families." 





238 DISCOURSES, OR 

Question. 

^HEN a doubt is propounded, you must learn 
to distinguish, and show wherein a thing 
holds, and wherein it doth not hold. Ay, 
or no, never answered any Question. The not distin- 
guishing where things should he distinguished, and the 
not confounding, where things should he confounded, is 
the cause of all the mistakes in the World. 

Reason. 

X& giving Eeasons, Men commonly do with 
us as the Woman does with her Child; 
when she goes to Market about her busi- 
ness, she tells it she goes to buy it a fine thing, to buy 
it a Cake or some Plums. They give us such Eeasons 
as they think we will be catched withal, but never let 
us know the Truth. 

2. When the School-Men talk of Recta Ratio in 
Morals, either they understand Eeason as it is governed 
by a Command from above, or else they say no more 
than a Woman, when she says a thing is so, because it 
is so ; that is, her Eeason persuades her 'tis so. The 
other Acception has Sense in it. As take a Law of 
the Land, I must not depopulate,* my Eeason tells me 
so. Why ? Because if I do, I incur the detriment. 

* Depopulate. Depopulatip agrorum — a great offence in the 
ancient Common Law : Pulling down, or leaving to ruin farm- 
houses, cottages, &c. turning arable into pasture, &c. 





TABLE-TALK. 239 

3. The Keason of a Thing is not to be enquired 
after, till you are sure the Thing itself be so. We 
commonly are at What's the Reason of it ? before we 
are sure of the Thing. 'Twas an excellent Question 
of mj Lady Cotton, when Sir Robert Cotton was mag- 
nifying of a Shoe, which was Moses's or Noah's, and 
wondering at the strange Shape and Fashion of it : 
But, Mr. Cotton, says she, are you sure it is a Shoe ? 

Retaliation. 

N Eye for an Eye, and a Tooth for a Tooth. 
That does not mean, that if I put out an- 
other Man's Eye, therefore I must lose one 
of my own, (for what is he the better for that ?) though 
this be commonly received ; but it means, I shall give 
him what Satisfaction an Eye shall be judged to be 
worth. 

Reverence. 

l.IS sometimes unreasonable to look after Re- 
spect and Reverence, either from a Man's 
own Servant, or other Inferiors. A great 
Lord and a Gentleman talking together, there came a 
Boy by, leading a Calf with both his Hands : says the 
Lord to the Gentleman, You shall see me make the 
Boy let go his Calf; with that he came towards him, 
thinking the Boy would have put off his Hat, but the 
Boy took no Notice of him. The Lord seeing that, 
Sirrah, says he, Do you not know me that you use no 
Reverence ? Yes, says the Boy, if your Lordship ivill 
hold my Calf, I will put off my Hat. 





240 DISCOURSES, OR 

Non- Residency. 

IHE People thought they had a great Victory 
over the Clergy, when in Henry the Eighth's 
time they got their Bill passed, That a Cler- 
gyman should have but two Livings : before, a Man 
might have Twenty or Thirty; 'twas but getting a 
Dispensation from the Pope's Limiter, or Gatherer of 
the Peter-Pence,* which was as easily got, as now you 
may have a Licence to eat Flesh. 

2. As soon as a Minister is made, he hath Power to 
preach all over the World, but the Civil-Power restrains 
him ; he cannot preach in this Parish, or in that ; there 
is one already appointed. Xow if the State allows him 
Two Livings, then he hath Two Places where he may 
Exercise his Function, and so has the more Power to 
do his Office, which he might do every where if he 
were not restrained. 



Religion. 

I IXGr James said to the Fly, Have I Three 
Kingdoms, and thou must needs fly into 
my Eye ? Is there not enough to meddle 
with upon the Stage, or in Love, or at the Table, but 
Keligion ? 

2. Keligion amongst Men appears to me like the 

* Peter-Pence. A levy of one penny to the Pope on every 
chimney that smoked — so called hearth-penny, smoke-penny, 
&c. granted by Ine or Athelulph. 




TABLE-TALK. 241 

Learning they got at School. Some Men forget all 
they learned, others spend upon the Stock, and some 
improve it. So some Men forget all the Religion that 
was taught them when they were Young, others spend 
upon that Stock, and some improve it. 

3. Religion is like the Fashion : one Man wears his 
Doublet slashed, another laced, another plain; but 
every Man has a Doublet. So every man has his Re- 
ligion. "We differ about Trimming.* 

4. Men say they are of the same Religion for Quiet- 
ness sake ; but if the Matter were well examined you 
would scarce find Three any where of the same Religion 
in all Points. 

5. Every Religion is a getting Religion ; for though 
I myself get nothing, I am subordinate to those that 
do. So you may find a Lawyer in the Temple that 
gets little for the present ; but he is fitting himself to 
be in time one of those great Ones that do get. 

6. Alteration of Religion is dangerous, because we 
know not where it will stay : 'tis like a Millstone that 
lies upon the top of a pair of Stairs ; 'tis hard to re- 
move it, but if once it be thrust off the first Stair, it 
never stays till it comes to the bottom. 

7. Question. Whether is the Church or the Scrip- 
ture Judge of Religion ? Answer. In truth neither, 
but the State. I am troubled with a Boil ; I call a 
Company of Chirurgeons about me ; one prescribes one 
thing, another another ; I single out something I like, 



* May not this have afforded a hint to Swift for The Tale of 
a Tub? 



242 DISCOURSES, OR 

and ask you that stand by, and are no Chirurgeon, 
what think you of it. You like it too ; you and I are 
Judges of the Plaster, and we bid them prepare it, and 
there's an end. Thus 'tis in Beligion : the Protestants 
say they will be judged by the Scriptures ; the Papists 
say so too ; but that cannot speak. A Judge is no 
Judge, except he can both speak and command Execu- 
tion ; but the truth is they never intend to agree. No 
doubt the Pope, where he is Supreme, is to be Judge ; 
if he say we in England ought to be subject to him, 
then he must draw his Sword and make it good. 

8. By the Law was the Manual received into the 
Church before the Reformation ; not by the Civil Law, 
that had nothing to do in it ; nor by the Canon Law, 
for that Manual that was here, was not in France, nor 
in Spain; but by Custom, which is the Common Law 
of England ; and Custom is but the Elder Brother to 
a Parliament : and so it will fall out to be nothing that 
the Papists say, ours is a Parliamentary Beligion, by 
reason the Service-Book was Established by Act of 
Parliament, and never any Service-Book was so before. 
That will be nothing that the Pope sent the Manual ; 
'twas ours, because the State received it. The State 
still makes the Beligion, and receives into it what will 
best agree with it. Why are the Venetians Boman 
Catholics? because the State likes the Beligion; all 
the World knows they care not Three-pence for the 
Pope. The Council of Trent is not at this day ad- 
mitted in France. 

9. Papist. Where was your Beligion before Lutlier, 
an Hundred years ago? Protestant. Where was 



TABLE-TALK. 243 

America an Hundred or Sixscore Years ago ? our Ee- 
ligion was where the rest of the Christian Church was. 
Papist. Our Eeligion continued ever since the Apostles, 
and therefore 'tis better. Protestant. So did ours. That 
there was an Interruption of it, will fall out to be no- 
thing, no more than if another Earl should tell me of 
the Earl of Kent ; saving, He is a better Earl than he, 
because there was one or two of the Family of Kent 
did not take the Title upon them ; jet all that while 
they were really Earls ; and afterwards as great a 
Prince declared them to be Earls of Kent, as he that 
made the other Family an Earl. 

10. Disputes in Eeligion will never be ended, because 
there wants a Measure by which the Business would be 
decided. The Puritan would be judged by the Word 
of God : If he would speak clearly he means himself, 
but he is ashamed to say so ; and he would have me 
believe him before a whole Church, that has read the 
Word of God as well as he. One says one thing, and 
another another ; and there is, I say, no Measure to 
end the Controversy. 'Tis just as if Two Men were at 
Eowls, and both judged by the Eye. One says 'tis his 
Cast, the other says 'tis my Cast ; and having no Mea- 
sure, the Difference is Eternal. Ben Jonson Satirically 
expressed the vain Disputes of Divines, by Inigo Lan- 
thorn, disputing with his Puppet in a Bartholomeiv 
Fair. It is so ; It is not so : It is so ; It is not so ; 
crying thus one to another a quarter of an Hour to- 
gether. 

11. In Matters of Eeligion to be ruled by one that 
writes against his Adversary, and throws all the Dirt 



244 DISCOURSES, OR 

he can in his Face, is, as if in point of good Manners 
a Man should be governed by one whom he sees at 
Cuffs with another, and thereupon thinks himself bound 
to give the next Man he meets a Box on the Ear. 

12. 'Tis to no purpose to labour to reconcile Eeli- 
gions, when the Interest of Princes will not suffer it. 
'Tis well if they could be reconciled so far that they 
should not cut one another's Throats. 

13. There's all the Eeason in the World, Divines 
should not be suffered to go a Hair beyond their Bounds, 
for fear of breeding Confusion, since there now be so 
many Beligions on Foot. The Matter was not so nar- 
rowly to be looked after when there was but one Be- 
ligion in Christendom : the rest would cry him down 
for an Heretic, and there was no Body to side with 
him. 

14. We look after Eeligion as the Butcher did after 
his Knife, when he had it in his Mouth. 

15. Religion is made a Juggler's Paper ; now 'tis a 
Horse, now 'tis a Lanthorn, now 'tis a Boar, now 'tis 
a Man. To serve Ends Eeligion is turned into all 
Shapes. 

16. Pretending Eeligion and the Law of God, is to 
set all things loose. When a Man has no mind to do 
something he ought to do by his Contract with Man, 
then he gets a Text, and interprets it as he pleases, 
and so thinks to get loose. 

17. Some Men's pretending Eeligion, is like the 
Eoaring Boys'* way of challenges, Their Reputation 

* Roaring Boys* The Swash bucklers or bullying bucks of 
Charles's time. 



TABLE-TALK. 245 

is dear, it does not stand with the Honour of a Gentle- 
man; when, God knows, they have neither Honour 
nor Eeputation about them. 

18. They talk much of settling Keligion : Religion 
is well enough settled already, if we would let it alone. 
Methinks we might look after, fyc. 

19. If Men would say they took Arms for any thing 
but Religion, they might be beaten out of it by Eeason : 
out of that they never can, for they will not believe you 
whatever you say. 

20. The very Arcanum of pretending Religion in 
all "Wars, is, That something may be found out in which 
all men may have interest. In this the Groom has as 
much interest as the Lord. Were it for Land, one has 
One Thousand Acres, and the other but One ; he would 
not venture so far as he that has a Thousand. But 
Religion is equal to both. Had all Men Land alike, 
by a Lex Agraria, then all Men would say they fought 
for Land. 



Sabbath. 

?HY should I think all the fourth Command- 
ment belongs to me, when all the fifth does 
not ? W T hat Land will the Lord give me 
for honouring my Father ? It was spoken to the Jews 
with reference to the Land of Canaan ; but the mean- 
ing is, If I honour my Parents, God will also bless me. 
We read the Commandments in the Church- Service, 
as we do David's Psalms ; not that all there concerns 
us, but a great deal of them does. 





246 DISCOURSES, OR 



Sacrament. 

'HEIST suffered Judas to take the Com- 
munion. Those Ministers that keep their 
Parishioners from it, because they will not 
do as they will have them, revenge, rather than reform. 
2. No Man can tell whether I am fit to receive the 
Sacrament ; for though I were fit the day before, when 
he examined me, at least appeared so to him, yet how 
can he tell, what sin I have committed that night, or 
the next morning, or what impious Atheistical thoughts 
I may have about me, when I am approaching to the 
very Table ? 

Salvation. 

*E can best understand the meaningof <tcotyi£ la, 
Salvation, from the Jews, to whom the Sa- 
viour was promised. They held that them- 
selves should have the chief place of happiness in the 
other world; but the Gentiles that were good men, 
should likewise have their portion of Bliss there too. 
Now by Christ the Partition-Wall is broken down, and 
the Gentiles that believe in him, are admitted to the 
same place of Bliss with the Jews ; and why then 
should not that portion of Happiness still remain to 
them, who do not believe in Christ, so they be morally 
Good ? This is a charitable opinion. 





TABLE-TALK. 247 

State. 

jJS a troubled State save as much for your 
own as you can. A Dog had been at Mar- 
ket to buy a Shoulder of Mutton ; coming 
home he met two Dogs by the way, that quarrelled with 
him ; he laid down his Shoulder of Mutton, and fell to 
fighting with one of them ; in the meantime the other 
Dog fell to eating his Mutton ; he seeing that, left the 
Dog he was fighting with, and fell upon him that was 
eating ; then the other Dog fell to eat : when he per- 
ceived there was no remedy, but which of them soever 
he fought withal, his Mutton was in danger, he thought 
he would have as much of it as he could, and thereupon 
gave over fighting, and fell to eating himself. 



Superstition. 

apSIR^HEY that are against Superstition often- 



times run into it of the wrong side. If I will 
wear all colours but black, then am I su- 
perstitious in not wearing black. 

2. They pretend not to abide the Cross,* because 'tis 
superstitious ; for my part I will believe them, when I 



* It will be remembered that on the old coins the reverse had 
generally the device of a Cross, hence the French phrase of 
" Jouer Croix et pile" for to play at tossing for heads or tails. So 
in As You Like It, ii. 4. " Touch, For my part I had rather 
bear with you than bear you ; yet I should bear no Cross if I 
did bear you ; for I think you have no money in your purse." 



248 



DISCOURSES, OR 



see them throw their money out of their pockets, and 
not till then. 

3. If there he any Superstition truly and properly so 
called, 'tis their observing the Sabbath after the Jewish 
manner. 




Subsidies. 

|ERETOEORE the Parliament was wary 
I what Subsidies they gave to the King, be- 
cause they had no account ; but now they 
care not how much they give of the Subjects' money, 
because they give it with one hand, and receive it with 
the other ; and so upon the matter give it themselves. 
In the mean time what a case the Subjects of England 
are in ! If the men they have sent to the Parliament 
misbehave themselves, they cannot help it, because the 
Parliament is eternal. 

2. A Subsidy was coimted the fifth part of a Man's 
Estate, and so fifty Subsidies is five and forty times 
more than a man is worth. 



Simony. 

tHE Xame of Simony was begot in the 
Canon-Law : the first Statute against it was 
in Queen Elizabeth's time. Since the Re- 
formation Simony has been frequent : One reason why 
it was not practised in time of Popery, was the Pope's 
provision ; no man was sure to bestow his own Bene- 
fice. 





TABLE-TALK. 249 

Ship -Money. 

i 1 32, Noy brought in Ship-money first for 
Maritime Towns ; but that was like putting 
in a little Auger, that afterwards you may 
put in a greater. He that pulls down the first Brick, 
does the main Work ; afterwards 'tis easy to pull down 
the Wall. 

2. They that at first would not pay Ship-money, till 
'twas decided, did like brave men, though perhaps they 
did no good by the Trial ; but they that stand out since, 
and suffer themselves to be distrained, never question- 
ing those that do it, do pitifully, for so they only pay 
twice as much as they should.* 



Synod Assembly. f 

E have had no National Synod since the 
Kingdom hath been settled as now it is, 
only Provincial ; and there will be this in- 



* Selden evidently doubted whether Hampden's contest 
against the payment of Ship-Money, though praiseworthy and 
correct, was of any benefit to the country, and we may consider 
that his doubt was founded upon a just fear that it would aggra- 
vate the growing enmity between the people and the Sovereign, 
and would involve in one feeling of dislike all the constituted 
branches of the Executive. — Johnson's Memoirs of Selden. 

t It was not composed like the yearly General Synods of the 
Presbyterian Church, entrusted with independent power; but 
was a Committee to advise with Parliament in matters of Reli- 
gion, and referring all to the final sanction of Parliament. The 




250 DISCOURSES, OB 

convenience to call so many Divines together ; 'twill be 
to put power in their Hands, who are too apt to usurp 
it, as if the Laity were bound by their determination. 
~No, let the Laity consult with Divines on all sides, hear 
what they say, and make themselves Masters of their 
Reasons, as they do by any other profession, when they 
have a difference before them. For Example, Gold- 
smiths, they enquire of them, if such a Jewel be of 
such a value, and such a stone of such a value, hear 
them, and then, being rational men, judge themselves. 

2. Why should you have a Synod, when you have a 
Convocation already, which is a Synod? Would you 
have a superfetation of another Synod? The Clergy 
of England, when they cast off the Pope, submitted 
themselves to the Civil Power, and so have continued, 
but these challenge to be Jure Divino, and so to be 
above the Civil Power ; these challenge power to call 
before their Presbyteries all Persons for all sins directly 
against the Law of God, as proved to be sins by neces- 
sary consequence. If you would buy Gloves, send for 
a Glover or two, not Glovers -Hall : consult with some 
Divines, not send for a Body. 

3. There must be some Laymen in the Synod, to 
overlook the Clergy, lest they spoil the Civil work : Just 
as when the good Woman puts a Cat into the Milk- 



Presbyterian party strove hard to make their Church and 
councils independent of the state ; but Selden and the Erastians 
kept them under the civil power. 

The Assembly began to sit in July, 1643, in February, 1648-9, 
changed into a Committee for the ordination of Ministers, and 
broke up finally in 1652. 



TABLE-TALK. 251 

House to kill a Mouse, she sends her Maid to look after 
the Cat, lest the Cat should eat up the Cream. 

4. In the Ordinance for the Assembly, the Lords and 
Commons go under the names of learned, godly, and 
judicious Divines ; there is no difference put betwixt 
them and the Ministers in the context. 

5. 'Tis not unusual in the Assembly to revoke their 
Votes, by reason they make so much haste, but 'tis 
that will make them scorned. You never heard of a 
Council [that] revoked an Act of its own making ; they 
have been wary in that, to keep up their infallibility; if 
they did any thing, they took away the whole Council, 
and yet we would be thought infallible as any body. 
'Tis not enough to say, the House of Commons revoke 
their Votes, for theirs are but Civil truths, which they 
by agreement create, and uncreate, as they please : but 
the Truths the Synod deals in are Divine ; and when 
they have voted a thing, if it be then true, 'twas true 
before; not true because they voted it, nor does it 
cease to be true because they voted otherwise. 

6. Subscribing in a Synod, or to the Articles of a 
Synod, is no such terrible thing as they make it ; be- 
cause, If I am of a Synod, 'tis agreed, either tacitly or 
expressly, that which the major part determines, the 
rest are involved in ; and therefore I subscribe, though 
my own private Opinion be otherwise ; and upon the 
same Ground, I may without scruple subscribe to what 
those have determined whom I sent, though my pri- 
vate Opinion be otherwise, having respect to that which 
is the Ground of all assemblies ; the major part car- 
ries it. 




252 DISCOURSES, OR 



Thanksgiving. 

T first we gave thanks for every Victory as 
soon as ever 'twas obtained ; but since we 
have bad many, now we can stay a good 
wbile. We are just like a Child : give him a Plum, he 
makes his Leg ; give him a second Plum, he makes 
another Leg ; at last when his Belly is full, he forgets 
what he ought to do ; then his Nurse, or somebody else 
that stands by him, puts him in mind of his Duty; 
Where's your Leg 1 

Tithes. 

^ ITHES are more paid in kind in England, 
than in all Italy and France. In France 
they have had Impropriations * a long time ; 
we had none in England till Henry the Eighth. 

2. To make an Impropriation, there was to be the 
consent of the Incumbent, the Patron, and the King; 
then 'twas confirmed by the Pope : without all this the 
Pope could make no Impropriation. 

3. Or what if the Pope gave the Tithes to any Man, 
must they therefore be taken away ? If the Pope gives 
me a Jewel, will you therefore take it away from me ? 

4. Abraham paid Tithes to MelchizedecJc. What 
then ? 'Twas very well done of him ; it does not fol- 

* Impropriations, i. e. Lay-impropriations ; appropriation being 
the proper term for any benefice given into clerical hands. 




TABLE-TALK. 253 

low therefore that I must pay Tithes, no more than I 
am bound to imitate any other action of Abraham's. 

5. 'Tis ridiculous to say the Tithes are God's Part, 
and therefore the Clergy must have them. Why, so 
they are if the Layman has them. 'Tis as if one of 
my Lady Kent's Maids should be sweeping this Eoom, 
and another of them should come and take away the 
Broom, and tell for a Eeason why she should part with 
it; 'Tis my Lady's Broom: As if it were not my 
Lady's Broom, which of them soever had it. 

6. They consulted in Oxford where they might find 
the best Argument for their Tithes, setting aside the Jus 
Divinum ; they were advised to my History of Tithes ; 
a Book so much cried down by them formerly; in 
which, I dare boldly say, there are more arguments for 
them than are extant together any where. Upon this, 
one writ me word, That my History of Tithes was now 
become like Fellas' Hasta* to wound and to heal. I 
told him in my Answer, I thought I could fit him with 
a better Instance. 'Twas possible it might undergo the 
same Fate, that Aristotle, Avicen, and Averroes did in 
France, some five hundred Years ago ; which were 
Excommunicated by Stephen Bishop of Paris (by that 
very name, Excommunicated) because that kind of 
Learning puzzled and troubled their Divinity; but 
finding themselves at a loss, some Forty Years after 
(which is much about the time since I writ my His- 
tory) they were called in again, and so have continued 
ever since. 

* Pelias 1 hasta, i.e. the spear of Achilles, which was necessary 
to cure the wound it had inflicted on Telephus. 




254 DISCOURSES, OR 



Trade. 

SiHEEE is no Prince in Christendom but is 
directly a Tradesman, though in another 
way than an ordinary Tradesman. For the 
purpose, I have a Man ; I bid him lay out twenty 
Shillings in such Commodities ; but I tell him for every 
Shilling he lays out I will have a Penny. I trade as 
well as he. This every Prince does in his Customs. 

2. That which a Man is bred up in he thinks no 
cheating ; as your Tradesman thinks not so of his Pro- 
fession, but calls it a Mystery. Whereas if you would 
teach a Mercer to make his Silks heavier, than what he 
has been used to, he would peradventure think that to 
be cheating. 

3. Every Tradesman professes to cheat me, that asks 
for his Commodity twice as much as it is worth. 



Tradition. 

5 AY what you will against Tradition; we 
know the Signification of Words by nothing 
but Tradition. You will say the Scripture 
was written by the Holy Spirit ; but do you understand 
that Language 'twas writ in ? No. Then for Example, 
take these words, In principio erat verbum. How do 
you know those words signify, In the beginning was the 
word, but by Tradition, because some Body has told 
you so? 





TABLE-TALK. 255 

Transubstantiation. 

I HE Fathers using to speak Khetorically, 
brought up Transubstantiation : as if be- 
cause it is commonly said, Amicus est alter 
idem, one should go about to prove a Man and his 
Friend are all one. That Opinion is only Rhetoric 
turned into Logic. 

2. There is no greater Argument (though not used) 
against Transubstantiation than the Apostles at their 
first Council forbidding Blood and Suffocation. Would 
they forbid Blood, and yet enjoin the eating of Blood 
too? 

3. The best way for a pious Man, is, to address 
himself to the Sacrament with that Reverence and 
Devotion, as if Christ were really there present. 



Traitor. 

lIS not seasonable to call a Man Traitor that 
has an Army at his Heels. One with an 
Army is a Gallant man. My Lady Cotton 
was in the right, when she laughed at the Dutchess of 
Richmond for taking such State upon her, when she 
could Command no Forces. She a Dutchess ! there's 
in Flanders a Dutchess indeed; meaning the Arch- 
Dutchess. 





256 DISCOURSES, OR 



Trinity. 

, HE second Person is made of a piece of 
Bread by the Papist, the Third Person is 
made of his own Frenzy, Malice, Ignorance 
and Folly, by the Soundhead. To all these the Spirit 
is intituled. One the Baker makes, the other the 
Oobler ; and betwixt those two, I think the First Person 
is sufficiently abused. 



Truth. 

fcHE Aristotelians say, All Truth is con- 
tained in Aristotle in one place or another. 
Galileo makes Simplicius say so, but shows 
the absurdity of that Speech, by answering, All Truth 
is contained in a lesser Compass, viz. in the Alphabet. 
Aristotle is not blamed for mistaking sometimes, but 
Aristotelians for maintaining those mistakes. They 
should acknowledge the good they have from him, and 
leave him when he is in the wrong. There never 
breathed that Person to whom Mankind was more 
beholden. 

2. The way to find out the Truth is by others' mis- 
takings ; for if I was to go to such a Place, and one 
had gone before me on the Bight-hand, and he was 
out ; another had gone on the Left-hand, and he was 
out ; this would direct me to keep the middle way, that 
peradventure would bring me to the place I desired 
to go. 





TABLE-TALK. 257 

3. In troubled "Water you can scarce see jour Face, 
or see it very little, till the Water be quiet and stand 
still. So in troubled times you can see little Truth ; 
when times are quiet and settled, then Truth appears. 



Trial. 

JjKIALS are by one of these three ways ; by 
Confession, or by Demurrer ; that is, con- 
fessing the Fact, but denying it to be that, 
wherewith a Man is charged ; for Example, denying it 
to be Treason, if a Man be charged with Treason ; or 
by a Jury. 

2. Ordalium was a Trial ; and was either by going 
over nine red-hot Plough Shares, (as in the Case of 
Queen Emma, accused for lying with the Bishop of 
Winchester, over which she being led blindfold, and 
having passed all her Irons, asked when she should 
come to her Trial ;) or 'twas by taking a red-hot Coul- 
ter in a Man's hand, and carrying it so many Steps, 
and then casting it from him. As soon as this was 
done, the Hands or the Feet were to be bound up, and 
certain Charms to be said, and a day or two after to be 
opened : if the parts were whole, the Party was judged 
to be Innocent ; and so on the contrary. 

3. The Eack is used no where as in England : * In 



* It is commonly believed the Rack was not used in England 
later than 1619, when Peacham, suspected of treason, was racked 
by order of the Privy Council. But Mr. Jardine quotes from 
B 



258 DISCOURSES, OR 

other Countries 'tis used in Judicature, when there is a 
Semvplena probatio, a half Proof against a Man ; then 
to see if they can make it full, they rack him if he will 
not confess. But here in England they take a Man 
and rack him, I do not know why, nor when ; not in 
time of Judicature, but when some body bids. 

4. Some Men before they come to their Trial, are 
cozened to Confess upon Examination. Upon this Trick, 
they are made to believe some body has confessed be- 
fore them ; and then they think it a piece of Honour to 
be clear and ingenuous, and that destroys them. 



University. 

j HE best Argument why Oxford should have 
precedence of Cambridge, is the Act of Par- 
liament, by which Oxford is made a Body, 

made what it is, and Cambridge is made what it is ; 

and in the Act it takes place. Besides Oxford has the 

best Monuments to show. 

2. 'Twas well said of one, hearing of a History 
Lecture to be founded in the University: Would to 
God, says he, they would direct a Lecture of Discre- 
tion there ; this would do more Good there a hundred 
times. 

3. He that comes from the University to govern the 



the Council Book a series of warrants for torture from Edward 
the Sixth down to 1640. The twelve Judges declared it was 
against the Law, in Felton's case. 





TABLE-TALK. 259 

State, before he is acquainted with the Men and Man- 
ners of the Place, does just as if he should come into 
the presence Chamber all Dirty, with his Boots on, his 
riding Coat, and his Head all daubed. They may serve 
him well enough in the Way, but when he comes to 
Court, he must conform to the Place. 



Vows. 

[UPPOSE a Man find by his own Inclination 
he has no mind to marry, may he not then 
vow Chastity ? Answer. If he does, what 
a fine thing hath he done ! 'tis as if a Man did not 
love Cheese, and then he would vow to God Almighty 
never to eat Cheese. He that vows can mean no more 
in sense than this ; to do his utmost endeavour to keep 
his Yow. 

Usury. 

| HE Jews were forbidden to take Use one of 
another, but they were not forbidden to 
take it of other Nations. That being so, I 
see no reason, why I may not as well take Use for my 
Money as Eent for my House.* 'Tis a vain thing to 



* The prejudice against taking Use or Interest for money was 
then termed Usury, and was considered if not criminal, at least 
hateful. The reader may turn to Lord Bacon's 41st Essay, which 
is on this subject, to see with what caution he ventures to speak 
of " the Commodities of Usury," and he will be amused with 
some of the arguments against it. 




260 DISCOURSES, OB 

say, Money begets not Money $ for that no doubt it 
does. 

2. Would it not look oddly to a Stranger that should 
come into this Land, and hear in our Pulpits Usury 
preached against, and yet the Law allow it ? Many 
Men use it ; perhaps some Churchmen themselves. No 
Bishop nor Ecclesiastical Judge, that pretends power 
to punish other Faults, dares punish, or at least does 
punish any man for doing it. 



Pious Uses. 

jHE ground of the Ordinary's taking part of 
a Man's Estate, who died without a Will, 
to Pious Uses, was this ; to give it some 
body to pray, that his Soul might be delivered out of 
Purgatory: now the pious Uses come into his own 
Pocket. 'Twas well expressed by John Poivh in the 
Play, who acted the Priest : one that was to be hanged, 
being brought to the Ladder, would fain have given 
something to the Poor ; he feels for his Purse, (which 
John Poivls had picked out of his Pocket before,) 
missing it, cries out, he had lost his Purse ; now he 
intended to have given something to the Poor : John 
Powls bid him be pacified, for the Poor had it 
already. 




TABLE-TALK. 261 



War. 




) O not under- value an Enemy by whom you 
have been worsted. When our Country- 
men came home from fighting with the 
Saracens, and were beaten by them, they pictured them 
with huge, big, terrible Faces (as you still see the sign 
of the Saracen's Head is), when in truth they were like 
other Men. But this they did to save their own Credits. 

2. Martial-Law* in general, means nothing but the 
Martial-Law of this, or that Place : with us to be used 
in Fervore Belli, in the Face of the Enemy, not in time 
of Peace ; there they can take away neither Limb nor 
Life. The Commanders need not complain for want 
of it, because our Ancestors have done gallant things 
without it. 

3. Question. Whether may Subjects take up Arms 
against their Prince ? Answer. Conceive it thus : Here 
lies a Shilling betwixt you and me ; Ten Pence of the 
Shilling is yours, Two Pence is mine : by agreement, I 
am as much King of my Two Pence, as you of your 
Ten Pence. If you therefore go about to take away 



* Martial Law. This was one of the chief grievances com- 
plained of in the Petition of Right, debated many days in Parlia- 
ment, and Selden one of the chief speakers. Charles had billeted 
his soldiers illegally on his subjects; any crimes, violence, &c. 
those soldiers should commit, to be punished by Martial Law— 
whereby many were illegally executed, and many, acquitted by 
the Martial Law, evaded the surer process of the Common Law. 

Great outrage and violence prevailed ; the roads were not safe, 

markets unfrequented, &c. 



262 DISCOURSES, OB 

my Two Pence, I will defend it, for there you and I 
are equal, both Princes. 

4. Or thus, two supreme Powers meet : one says to 
the other, give me your Land ; if you will not, I will 
take it from you ; the other, because he thinks himself 
too weak to resist him, tells him, of Nine Parts I will 
give you Three, so I may quietly enjoy the rest, and I 
will become your Tributary. Afterwards the Prince 
comes to exact Six Parts, and leaves but Three ; the 
Contract then is broken, and they are in Parity again. 

5. To know what Obedience is due to the Prince, you 
must look into the Contract betwixt him and his People ; 
as if you would know what Kent is due from the Tenant 
to the Landlord, you must look into the Lease. When 
the Contract is broken, and there is no third Person to 
judge, then the Decision is by Arms. And this is the 
Case between the Prince and the Subject. 

6. Question, What Law is there to take up Arms 
against the Prince, in Case he break his Covenant? 
Answer. Though there be no written Law for it, yet 
there is Custom, which is the best Law of the King- 
dom ; for in England they have always done it. There 
is nothing expressed between the King of England and 
the King of France, that if either Invades the other's 
Territory, the other shall take up Arms against him ; 
and yet they do it upon such an Occasion. 

7. 'Tis all one to be plundered by a Troop of Horse, 
or to have a Man's Goods taken from him by an Order 
from the Council Table. To him that dies, 'tis all one 
whether it be by a Penny Halter, or a Silk Garter ; 



TABLE-TALK. 263 

yet I confess the Silk Garter pleases more ; and like 
Trouts, we love to be tickled to Death. 

8. The Soldiers say they fight for Honour, when the 
Truth is they have their Honour in their Pocket ; and 
they mean the same thing that pretend to fight for 
Keligion. Just as a Parson goes to Law with his 
Parishioners ; he says, For the good of his Successors, 
that the Church may not lose its Eight; when the 
meaning is to get the Tithes into his own Pocket. 

9. We govern this War as an unskilful Man does a 
Casting-Net : if he has not the right trick to cast the 
Net off his Shoulder, the Leads will pull him into the 
Biver. I am afraid we shall pull ourselves into De- 
struction. 

10. We look after the particulars of a Battle, because 
we live in the very time of War ; whereas of Battles 
past we hear nothing but the number slain. Just as 
for the Death of a Man : when he is sick, we talk how 
he slept this Night, and that Night, what he eat, and 
what he drank : But when he is dead, we only say, he 
died of a Fever, or name his Disease, and there's an 
end. 

11. Boccaline* has this passage of Soldiers. They 
came to Apollo to have their Profession made the Eighth 
Liberal Science, which he granted. As soon as it was 
noised up and down, it came to the Butchers, and they 
desired their Profession might be made the Ninth: 



* Ragguagli di Parnasso, Centuria I. cap, lxxv. This book 
seems to have been a favourite with Selden, he has cited it else- 
where. It was extremely popular for its wit and satire. 




264 DISCOURSES, OR 

For say they, the Soldiers have this Honour for the 
killing of Men ; now we kill as well as they ; but we 
kill Beasts for the preserving of Men, and why should 
not we have Honour likewise done to us ? Apollo could 
not Answer their Reasons, so he reversed his Sen- 
tence, and made the Soldier's Trade a Mystery, as the 
Butcher's is. 

Witches* 

fcHE Law against Witches does not prove 
there he any ; but it punishes the Malice of 
those People, that use such means to take 
away Men's Lives. If one should profess that by 



* There is a remarkable coincidence of opinion on the justice 
of punishing Witchcraft between Selden and Hobbes. " As for 
Witches, I think not that their witchcraft is any real power ; but 
yet that they are justly punished for the false beliefe they have 
that they can do such mischiefe, joyned with their purpose to do 
it if they can : their trade being nearer to a new Religion than 
to a Craft or Science." — Leviathan, p. 7, ed. 1651. 

This however would only apply to those who practised witch- 
ery with an evil intention, or to impose on credulity. Many of 
the poor wretches who were cruelly tormented and executed as 
supposed witches, were the victims of wicked informers or male- 
volent and ignorant neighbours, or enemies. And their confes- 
sions were extorted from them by cruel tortures. It seems now 
marvellous that the belief in witches so long maintained itself 
not only among the people, but among men of high intellectual 
power, a Glanville and a Henry More. Even Bentley defends 
the belief in witchcraft on the ground of the existence of a public 
law against it declaring it felony, and Dr. Samuel Clarke in his 
Exposition of the Church Catechism appears to countenance the 
popular credulity. 



TABLE-TALK. 265 

turning his Hat thrice, and crying Buz, he could take 
away a Man's Life, though in truth he could do no such 
thing, yet this were a just Law made by the State, that 
whosoever should turn his Hat thrice, and cry Buz, with 
an intention to take away a Man's Life, shall be put to 
death. 



Wife. 

j |E that hath a handsome Wife, by other 

l f Men is thought happy ; 'tis a Pleasure to 

look upon her, and be in her Company ; 

but the Husband is cloyed with her. "We are never 

content with what we have. 

2. You shall see a Monkey sometime, that has been 
playing up and down the Garden, at length leap up to 
the top of the Wall, but his Clog hangs a great way 
below on this side: the Bishop's Wife is like that 
Monkey's Clog; himself is got up very high, takes 
place of the Temporal Barons, but his Wife comes 
a great way behind. 

3. 'Tis reason a Man that will have a Wife should 
,be at the Charge of her Trinkets, and pay all the 

Scores she sets on him. He that will keep a Monkey 
'tis fit he should pay for the Glasses he breaks. 





266 DISCOURSES, OR 



Wisdom. 

WISE Man should never resolve upon any 
thing, at least never let the World know 
his Resolution, for if he cannot arrive at 
that, he is ashamed. How many things did the King 
resolve in his Declaration concerning Scotland, never 
to do, and yet did them all ! A Man must do according 
to Accidents and Emergencies. 

2. Never tell your Eesolution beforehand ; but when 
the Cast is thrown, play it as well as you can to win the 
Game you are at. 'Tis but folly to study how to play 
Size-ace, when you know not whether you shall throw 
it or no. 

3. Wise Men say nothing in dangerous times. The 
Lion you know called the Sheep to ask her if his 
Breath smelt : she said, Aye ; he bit off her Head for a 
Fool. He called the Wolf and asked him : he said 
no ; he tore him in pieces for a Flatterer. At last he 
called the Fox and asked Mm : truly he had got a Cold 
and could not smell. 



Wit. 

*IT and Wisdom differ; Wit is upon the 
sudden turn, Wisdom is in bringing about 
ends. 

2. Nature must be the ground-work of Wit and 
Art ; otherwise whatever is done will prove but Jack- 
pudding's work. 




TABLE-TALK. 267 

3. Wit must grow like Fingers. If it be taken from 
others, 'tis like Plums stuck upon black Thorns ; there 
they are for a while, but they come to nothing. 

4. He that will give himself to all manner of ways 
to get Money, may be rich ; so he that lets fly all he 
knows or thinks, may by chance be Satirically Witty. 
Honesty sometimes keeps a Man from growing Kich, 
and Civility from being Witty. 

5. Women ought not to know their own Wit, be- 
cause they will still be showing it, and so spoil it ; like 
a Child that will continually be showing its fine new 
Coat, till at length it all bedaubs it with its pah Hands. 

6. Fine Wits destroy themselves with their own 
Plots, in meddling with great Affairs of State. They 
commonly do as the Ape that saw the Gunner put 
Bullets in the Cannon, and was pleased with it, and he 
would be doing so too : at last he puts himself into the 
Piece, and so both Ape and Bullet were shot away 
together. 

Women. 

\ET the Women have power of their heads, 
because of the Angels. The reason of the 
words because of the Angels, is this : The 
Greek Church held an Opinion that the Angels fell in 
Love with Women ; an Opinion grounded upon that, 
Genesis vi.* The Sons of God saw the Laughters of 
Men that they were fair. This Fancy St. Paul dis- 

* But see also the Apocryphal Book of Enoch, ch. vii. v. 1, 2. 




268 DISCOURSES, OB 

ereetly catches, and uses it as an Argument to persuade 
them to modesty. 

2. The Grant of a Place is not good by the Canon 
Law, before a Man be dead : upon this ground some 
Mischief might be plotted against him in present pos- 
session, by poisoning or some other way. Upon the 
same reason a Contract made with a Woman, during 
her Husband's Life, was not valid. 

3. Men are not troubled to hear a Man dispraised, 
because they know though he be nought, there's worth 
in others; but Women are mightily troubled to hear 
any of them spoken against, as if the Sex itself were 
guilty of some Unworthiness. 

4. Women and Princes must both trust some body * 
and they are Happy or Unhappy according to the desert 
of those under whose Hands they fall. If a Man 
knows how to manage the Favour of a Lady, her Ho- 
nour is safe, and so is a Prince's. 



Year. 

^WAS the Manner of the Jews (if the Year 
did not fall out right, but that it was dirty 
for the People to come up to Jerusalem, at 
the Peast of the Passover, or that their Corn was not 
ripe for their first Pruits,) to intercalate a Month, and 
so to have, as it were, two Februaries, thrusting up the 
Year still higher, March into April's place, April into 
May's place, Sfc. Whereupon it is impossible for us to 
know when our Saviour was born, or when he died. 




TABLE-TALK. 269 

2. The Year is either the Year of the Moon, or the 
Year of the Sun ; there's not above eleven Days dif- 
ference. Our moveable Feasts are according to the 
Year of the Moon ; else they should be fixed. 

3. Though they reckon ten Days sooner beyond Sea, 
yet it does not follow their Spring is sooner than our's : 
we keep the same time in natural things, and their ten 
Days sooner, and our ten Days later in those things 
mean the self same time ; just as twelve Sous in French, 
are ten Pence in English. 

4. The lengthening of Days is not suddenly per- 
ceived till they are grown a pretty deal longer, because 
the Sun, though it be in a Circle, yet it seems for a 
while to go in a right Line. For take a Segment of a 
great Circle especially, and you shall doubt whether it 
be straight or no. But when the Sun is got past that 
Line, then you presently perceive the Days are length- 
ened. Thus it is in the Winter and Summer Solstice ; 
which is indeed the true Eeason of them. 

5. The Eclipse of the Sun is, when it is new Moon ; 
the Eclipse of the Moon when 'tis full. They say 
Dionysius was converted by the Eclipse that happened 
at our Saviour's Death, because it was neither of these, 
and so coidd not be natural. 



Zealots. 

NE would wonder Christ should whip the 
Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple, and 
nobody offer to resist him, considering what 




270 DISCOURSES, OR TABLE-TALK. 

Opinion they had of him. But the reason was, they 
had a Law, that whosoever did profane Sanctitatem 
Dei, aut Templi ; the Holiness of God or the Temple, 
before ten Persons, 'twas lawful for any of them to kill 
him, or to do any thing this side killing him, as whip- 
ping him, or the like. And hence it was, that when 
one struck our Saviour before the Judge, where it was 
not lawful to strike (as it is not with us at this Day), 
he only replies ; If I have spoken Evil, bear Witness 
of the Evil ; but if Well, why smitest thou me ? He 
says nothing against their smiting him, in case he had 
been guilty of speaking Evil, that is Blasphemy ; and 
they could have proved it against him. They that put 
this Law into execution were called Zealots ; but after- 
wards they committed many Villanies. 



615 *? t 



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